


I don't believe in cryptids (that's not a cryptid, that is my boyfriend, there's a difference)

by ChicagosLights



Series: Cryptid Out Boys [1]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, cryptid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:41:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22152685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChicagosLights/pseuds/ChicagosLights
Summary: Joe doesn't believe in a lot of the cryptid community, Pete does. He's always allowed Pete to go on tangents about them but now he's found himself on a road trip to the Pine Barrens to find the Jersey Devil. Everything seems fine at first, at least until Joe starts waking up during ungodly hours of the night to see someone or something looking in the windows. Does this someone want to hurt Joe? He's not sure anymore, one thing he is certain about is that you don't usually find cute guys with horns in a forest.
Relationships: Andy Hurley/Joe Trohman, OFC - Relationship, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Series: Cryptid Out Boys [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1929364
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I found this old cryptid fic I wrote back in my sophmore year and decided to edit and post it! New year, new decisions, if no one reads this at least I can say I tried. There will be later chapters where there will be fighting and blood and death but none of the characters die, you'll just have to see what I mean when I add them.

Joe doesn’t believe in cryptids.

Well, hang on, back pedal a little on that. There are _some_ cryptids that he believes could be plausible though most likely not as paranormal or supernatural as people claim them to be; the Tazmanian devil for instance, that’s something that had been real once and had been put in the cryptid category even when appearances of them began to show up again, as recent as 2019. Something like Bigfoot though? Most of the time it’s been proven to be someone in a costume, great photoshopping skills, or another loose chimpanzee in Florida. To be honest the only reason he listens to this whole cryptid nonsense is because if Pete who also happens to be the reason he’s on a road trip searching for a cryptid. How did he even let Pete convince him to drive to New Jersey anyway? He’s pretty sure it had to have been when he was either too tired to realize what he was saying or when he was high. Either way, now Joe’s sitting in the driver’s seat of an old Saturn while Pete’s snoring in the passenger’s side, somehow he’s louder than the engine and Joe’s wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up stranded in New Jersey. 

He could be working on his music major right now, he could be getting high in his shared apartment or anything else honestly instead of driving along an empty road to some lady’s house (or apparently a friend of one of Pete’s aunts). Joe let out a loud sigh and glanced back at sleeping Pete, yea right, he knew why he was on this trip; as much as he was bitching about having to leave the comfort of his bedroom back in Illinois he knew that if he’d let Pete go on this trip by himself (even though he figured Pete could try asking Gabe or Chris and Joe was pretty sure he would’ve asked his boyfriend except Patrick was out of state visiting family, though that didn’t stop the “if my boyfriend gets hurt it your balls Trohman” threat) that if Pete ended up getting hurt or going missing Joe wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself. 

The road finally dipped down into the trees and the asphalt turned into dirt; Pete grumbled in his sleep as the car ride turned bumpy by rocks and dirt clumps, Joe smiled a little smugly when a particularly large dirt clump made Pete jolt awake. 

“Morning sunshine” Joe chimed, surprised that Pete wasn’t glaring at him or trying to hit him and instead just nodded at him with a sleepy smile “we’re almost there. Either that or I’ve just gotten us lost and we’ll die out here” 

“No way, there’s gotta be some kinda hillbilly out here. I’m pretty sure the Sawyer family won’t mind having new family” Pete stretched and let out an obnoxious yawn, Joe leaned away and made a face at Pete’s hand almost brushing his head “relax, Shauna is nice and she won’t mind our company”

“Yeah? Did you tell her the real reason we’re out here or did you lie” it wouldn’t surprise Joe if Pete said a half-truth

“Of course I did, we’re here to check out the Pine Barrens” yep, Joe knew it “I contacted a group that are looking for the devil too, so tomorrow night we’re going to head out and find it”

“Hang on, what? Pete you’re just going to go off with some group of strangers to find some kind of monster?” Joe left out the _that doesn’t exist_ part, out of his side-vision Pete looked so happy he couldn’t find it in himself to ruin it with his skepticism “and what’s with the _we_ , you said you wouldn’t mind me staying at the house”   
  


“Oh come on man, you gotta come with me” Pete gave him a pouty look, maybe Joe being openly skeptic again was a better idea “what if they try leaving me? You have to be there to have my back! The Jersey Devil is supposed to be vicious, if it attacks me you need to fight it off me!” 

_Why the hell did you decide for us to go after a vicious monster_ Joe sighed exasperatedly before slowing the car down as a large house came in to view “damn is that her place?” 

“Yeah, there’s the blue roof, mom said Shauna’s family built it out here back when there was only dirt roads. It was a bed and breakfast I think” 

There’s an old fence around the place, it’s rotting wood and falling apart but Joe feels like it fits since now it feels like they’re in the middle of nowhere with all the trees; leaning against an old rusted pick-up truck was a woman in blue flannel and greying hair tied up in a messy bun, Joe feels a little nervous as he parks the car but when he gets out the RBF face the woman had changed into a kind smile.

“Glad to see you didn’t get lost, you’re still a little guy Peter?” Shauna gave Pete a quick once over and nodded “you look healthy at least. Come on in, I’ll have Bennie get your bags” 

“No it’s alright, we don’t have much stuff anyway” Joe opened the back door and pulled out both duffel bags “thanks for letting us stay here, Miss Shauna” 

“Just Shauna, Miss makes me feel old” Shauna hummed. 

Pete grabbed the 2 backpacks of “Cryptid hunting equipment” and the two followed Shauna up the steps to the porch, a banister ran around to the other side of the house and seemed to go almost all around it; Joe made a mental note to check the place out if he had time, right now though he was hit with the overwhelming smell of cinnamon apples in the foyer and Pete beside him obnoxiously gagged. Shauna didn’t seemed bugged by it at all and headed out and into an open room where a staircase went upstairs and another room was visible past it, Joe saw a few tables and figured it might’ve been a dining area probably. Shauna had moved behind a wooden receptionist area and was digging for something in a drawer, occasionally she cursed and the two boys just stood awkwardly in front of the desk until she gave a small “aha!” and held out a key to Pete. 

“Don’t know if your aunt told or not but I’m workin’ on getting this place back into a small bed and breakfast again. You two okay with rooming together? Most of the rooms are under work right now, my wife’s still gutting them so you’ve got limited space” 

“That works, thanks again for letting us stay here Shauna” Pete took the key and adjusted the backpack on his shoulder “we’ll go put our stuff away, is that lunch by chance? That apple smell?” Joe was in the same boat as him and hoping it was, cinnamon apples sounded good right about then.

But Shauna shaking her head and laughing broke those dreams “sorry boys, it's probably some kind of candle Amy’s burning, I think I feed into my wife’s candle love a little too much. It’s not bugging you is it? I can put a few out for now” 

“No we’re alright, we just didn’t have time to get some food” Joe felt his cheeks turn pink as his stomach decided to perform a whale mating call

“Well you’re in luck, Bennie should be making lunch right now. I’ll go check on them, you boys get settled in and lunch will be served shortly” with that Shauna disappeared down the hall. 

The stairs were dusty and Joe noticed a few paint splatters on them as they ascended, thankfully they were steep and he was only slightly out of breath by the time he got to the top. Sure as Shauna’s words were true the rooms they walked by were gutted and crowded with beds and furniture, Joe wondered if Shauna’s wife-her name had been Amy hadn’t it? He was pretty sure she said Amy-did this by herself or if she had help. Their room was a pretty comfy looking one once Pete got the door open; 2 medium sized beds, blue painted walls, a little desk with a lamp between both beds, and a closet. Pete threw the backpacks onto the bed next to the door and flopped down, laughing as he bounced a little before rolling over and grinning at Joe.

“Dude this is awesome. Hey, do you think Bennie is a dude? Kinda sounds like a dude name, maybe you can hook up” 

Joe snorted and dropped the duffel bags on Pete’s face, causing the older boy to cry out “shut the hell up, you’re not funny. I’ll tell Patrick you’re bullying me” 

Pete shoved the bags to the floor and sat up with the same shit eating grin “yeah? Well I’ll tell him you hurt me and he’ll take my side” 

Joe was too tired to banter and his stomach was telling him to head downstairs and see if lunch was done, knowing that Pete would probably inhale his food Joe grabbed one of the duffels bags and dropped it on him again before running out of the room; childish as it was and nearly causing the two of them to fall down the stairs, they eventually found the kitchen by smell of grilled cheese and Pete half dragging Joe in a headlock. Shauna wasn’t in the kitchen but a short person (well, that wasn’t really saying much since Pete was short) in a baggy hoodie and shorts, they didn’t give any indication they knew the boys were in the room but Joe doubted it was hard to miss the sound of them banging their way downstairs on the steps. 

“Hi, you Bennie?” Pete untangled his arms from around Joe and leaned against the wall.

The person who may have been Bennie finally looked up from the oven and nodded but didn’t say anything and went back to looking at the pan; Pete glanced over and Joe who shrugged, they were probably shy was his guess. A screen door at the far wall opened and Shauna came waltzing in, she smiled and nodded when she saw the boys.

“So you’re all settled in I hope? Bennie’s finishing up lunch, you boys can sit in the dining area and we’ll serve” Shauna patted Bennie’s head and both boys could relate to the face they made of ‘ _stop it I’m not a dog_ ’

The dining room was a pretty normal one though Joe stared up curiously at the bat-winged-and-horned chandelier “so Shauna has a kid?” 

“I don’t know dude” Pete was preoccupying himself with picking at the table “she’s my aunt’s friend, I only know that they met each other at work or something and she was pretty cool with housing us. I’m pretty sure it’s so we’ll go back to town and talk about how great this place is, so far it’s been pretty nice. No dead bodies, no bloody handprints, no crying girls in the bathroom from a mysterious death” 

“You need to lay off the horror movies” Joe grumbled, sure he didn’t believe in cryptids and ghosts but he wasn’t in the mood for waking up from a nightmare tonight “we still have tonight after all, maybe your Bloody Mary will show up after all” 

Pete probably had a comeback but then Bennie was walking in with lunch and setting the plates down, Shauna followed shortly with two glasses of coke and said she had to head to town to buy some more lunch meat. 

“You boys will be nice to Bennie, right?” her arm around Bennie’s shoulder and the _protective parent smile_ was pretty hard to say no to.

As Shauna left and Bennie sat at their own table munching on a sandwich apparently Pete decided that lunch wasn’t going to be quiet.

“Is Shauna your mom?” Joe kicked him under the table and received one back.

Bennie paused eating their sandwich before barely shaking their head _no._

Pete nodded as if he figured that “you can come over here if you want, Joe doesn’t bite and I only do sometimes”

That got a tiny giggle out of Bennie and they hesitated at first before walking over and sitting 2 seats away from Pete, both boys almost missed the “I’m Bennie”

“I’m Pete, that’s Joe” Joe waved slightly to Bennie “so do you just work here?” 

“Shauna’s my great aunt by marriage, she wanted to renovate this place so she asked Amy if I could come out with her down here. This is my job until October” Bennie was picking at their sandwich before looking at both boys “so you’re here for the Pine Barrens?”

“Why else would we be out here?”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because Bennie narrowed their eyes a bit, gesturing up to the chandelier they said in a rather menacing voice “the Jersey Devil” 

“Is that what that’s supposed to be?” Joe felt stupid for blurting that out but at least now he had his answer 

“Yeah, some tourist or whatever donated it to Auntie Amy ‘cause she needed new decor or something” Bennie finished their sandwich and stood back up “if you guys need the internet password it's just Jersey Devil zero-one-eight and if you want something to snack on there’s a little cupboard above the oven. I’ve got to go back to cleaning up the porch, don’t set shit on fire” 

As they headed to the kitchen again they stopped dead in their tracks and turned back to face the boys “if you’re actually here for the Jersey Devil don’t let Auntie Amy or Shauna, know okay? They hate the cryptid hunter stuff because it only brings in rude tourists or people that have tried stealing stuff from this inn because someone lied in town and said this was where the Leed’s woman had the baby” 

With that they were gone.

* * *

They arrived at the inn when the sun was up behind cloudy skies and now outside the sky was a dark angry looking gray and Joe was pretty sure he’d discovered all there was to the Inn, the place was huge but most of it was closed off so Amy could fix it up. Pete had preoccupied himself as well, finding his own stuff, snacking, and calling Patrick to reassure him he and Joe were fine and that they’d reached their destination with no issues. When they had finished their hunting Pete ran the plan through with Joe about meeting these cryptid hunters; they’d meet in Chatsworth and head out from there, since it wasn’t a large group they’d split off in 3’s and meet back at the cars when the sun was coming up (Pete promised that if they wanted to they could leave the hunt early). 

Joe just nodded the whole time, not believing they’d find shit but he didn’t want to put a damper on Pete’s good mood; occasionally they’d run into Bennie again and Pete would chat with them, every time the conversation steered towards the Jersey Devil though Bennie would make up an excuse or say “I don’t want to talk about it” and head to wherever they had been or were going. Shauna came back to town and Amy was with her, the couple had decided to retire early and Amy had told the boys if they wanted to get drunk in town that there was a spare key under one of the plants on the front porch. Joe didn’t feel like changing but apparently Pete decided to go in all black, he left the younger boy sitting outside wrapped up in a coat while he was upstairs hunting for clothes; the trees were occasionally moving with the wind and Joe knew his mind was playing tricks on him, he should’ve smacked Pete during lunch. 

Footsteps to his left made him jump but he was relieved and a little embarrassed to see it was just Bennie carrying a bucket of what looked like weeds. 

“Going out tonight?” he didn’t miss how irritated Bennie sounded “I don’t plan on sleeping tonight, I’ve got things to work on. I can let you guys in when you get back” 

“No it’s okay, I don’t want you staying awake on account of us” Joe shifted around where he sat and stared back out to the trees “I don’t think I’ll be out long. If I whine enough I can get Pete to come back with me”

“You don’t strike me as someone who believes in cryptids” Bennie dumped the bucket over the banister, the sound of several heavy thuds made Joe flinch every time “It’s alright if you don’t, I’m not gonna throw a fit or try shoving it down your throat” 

“Not really no. I think it’s all bullshit to be honest, at least some of it” Joe looked over his shoulder at the door, what was keeping Pete? “You do?”

“Same as you, some of it is bullshit and some of it I really do believe in” there was something about Bennie’s tone that had Joe a little unnerved “I was gonna make some pie tonight, I”ll save some slices for you guys when you get back” 

Joe just nodded and finally Pete appeared with one of the backpacks, he said bye to Bennie and as he and Joe piled into the car the younger boy wished he could shake the feeling there was something Bennie had wanted to say to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've never been to New Jersey, I just made guesses based on photos I've seen and the few people I had talked to at the time I wrote this.

Thankfully the people Pete had contacted weren’t creepy old dudes; in fact, Joe was pretty sure most of them were either Pete’s age or around Joe’s age. They don’t drive far by the time Joe spots a van with people sitting outside it and sure enough it’s the group Pete had been in contact with, the leader is a girl that easily dwarfs the two of them in height and Joe thinks she might’ve pulled Pete’s arm out when she shakes his hand in greeting. There were 5 guys (including Joe and Pete) and 7 girls, Joe tried catching everyone’s name but gave up when Tall girl said they’d be splitting up into groups of 3; Tall girl apparently had decided to go with Joe and Pete so the two boys trailed after her once her group all piled back into the van. 

“You’ve got good equipment for beginners” Tall girl-no wait, Joe remembered her name was Annie- commented as she picked up one of the night vision cameras Pete had packed “so the two of you split this up?” 

“Nah, just me. Joe doesn’t believe in cryptids” Pete chimed, he laughed when Joe elbowed him “what? You don’t!”

“I said I don’t believe in _some_ cryptids, Pete. There’s just a lot of them that sound too outlandish” Joe didn’t miss the way Annie’s face had now twisted up into a cold stare, great, so she was one of _those_ cryptid people “I don’t think we’re the only life in the universe and _maybe_ there was something large like Nessie that existed once upon a time but otherwise I don’t really believe in stuff like Bigfoot or Mothman” god her glare was just getting worse and worse, he was really digging himself a grave wasn’t he? 

“Well obviously Nessie is a descendant or a living remnant. As for Bigfoot and Mothman there’s plenty of evidence” Annie’s tone was sharp and cold, Joe shrank a little in his seat as he could tell she was about to go on a rant “you know just because humans are overtaking most forests now-”

“He’s allowed to have his own opinion” Pete snapped and Joe flinched but felt a little relieved, Pete didn’t let people yell at Joe usually “just because he’s with me right now doesn’t mean he’s doing this to convert into believing in cryptids. He’s out here with me because he wanted to make sure I didn’t get hurt on this trip. Not everyone has to believe in cryptids and even I can agree a lot of them sound pretty out there so don’t go ripping him a new one just for having an opinion” 

The car after that was in tense silence but Joe looked over at Pete and mouthed ‘ _thanks_ ’, Pete nodded back at him with a small smile and went back to looking down the road; soon they reached the area where the van sat and everyone piled out again to run by the rules once more before heading in their respective directions, Joe stayed close to Pete and Annie stayed on the opposite side of Pete. He hated to admit it but as they walked through the woods with every other sound going off he was beginning to believe something terrifying was out there with them; there’d be the distant sound of some woodland creature, an owl’s wings or hoots in the night sky, the trees creaking and groaning at the wind blowing through them, any of it could’ve been the Jersey Devil. Joe wasn’t sure when he had but apparently he’d grabbed Pete’s arm at some point because quietly Pete whispered that Joe’s grip was going to turn his arm purple and that he needed to loosen it a little, with a mumbled apology Joe let go and hugged himself instead. 

Annie had gone farther ahead of them, Joe wondered secretly if she was trying to get away from the two boys completely and honestly that wouldn’t surprise him from the way she had continued glaring at Joe after Pete telling her to knock it off. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, if any had passed at all, when Annie stopped dead in her tracks and Pete put an arm out protectively in front of Joe (which he ended up bumping into). He started to glare and open his mouth to bite Pete out until he saw what Annie and Pete were pointing at with their flashlights, now he was grateful Pete had held his arm out; it looked like the remains of a deer, a fat one that fed whatever had decided to make a meal out of it, and all that remained was a half-finished lower half. Joe’s blood ran cold at that thought and he whipped his head to look around the area, had there been something here eating? Had they just disrupted its meal time? _Fuck_ weren’t there bears out here? 

“We’re leaving” Pete’s voice made Joe jump and he nearly tripped as the older boy grabbed his arm to pull him along.

“What?” Annie sounded astounded at Pete’s words, she turned and quickly hurried after the two “what do you mean you’re leaving? This is good! It means the Jersey Devil was here, it means he was eating! Look, the blood is still pretty red, so this is fresh! Peter will you just hang on so I can radio-”

Pete stopping nearly had Joe tripping again “Annie there are _bears_ out here for fuck’s sake. I did my research before coming out here tonight, if it’s not a bear then it’s some kind of wild cat and I don’t want to be here when it comes back for its meal. I’m not saying you have to leave with us, you guys are welcome to stay out here as long as you want and if you’re scared I’ll stay with you until another group can come pick you up but I’m taking Joe and going back to the place we’re staying at” 

Annie was fuming “are you _kidding_ me? I agreed to take you on a cryptid hunt, with a _group_ mind you! It’s safer in numbers out here then just you walking around with your friend” the way she sneered out _friend_ made Joe feel small again, this time he was defending himself. 

Or at least, he would have if not for the almost thunderingly loud crack of a branch to the group’s right; Joe froze and felt a cold tingle run down his spine, he was moving before his mind could catch up with his body and Pete was alongside him. Annie’s desire to find whatever was out in the woods seemed to have been smushed down as well, Joe found this out the hard way as she shoved him aside and he collapsed on top of Pete with a cry of pain; Pete scrambled to get up and pull Joe with him, the younger boy made this harder as he tried getting up simultaneously and resulted in the two falling down again. Whatever had snapped the branch was now making its way towards the two, the sounds of branches moving and bushes rustling had Joe imagining a bear coming to rip them in two or a cougar maybe pissed off they interrupted their meal. Once back on their feet Pete nearly caused Joe to trip as they raced off again, he was sure he’d have indentions in his arm from where the older boy’s fingers were but he could worry about that later when he wasn’t sure a wild animal was about to eat them. 

He didn’t even know if Pete knew where they were going, when they fell it threw his senses off and all he had to go by was Pete dragging him along; Annie had seemed to long since disappeared and Joe wondered if she’d abandoned them or if something had gotten her, sure she’d been rude but he wouldn’t want someone to get hurt out in the middle of the woods- Joe wasn’t sure what he tripped over but the ground came up in a rush and pain exploded in his nose, he saw white before he saw the dirt floor and it took a second to register that he had just screamed. Joe looked around and saw that he had tripped and rolled down into what he guessed was a ditch, above him he heard Pete practically screaming his name and it took a second before Joe could manage a strangled croak; Pete’s face appeared up above, damn was this ditch actually a hole? Pete looked a far away.

“Joe! Are you fainted or not!” 

  
“No!” Joe finally managed and his face exploded in pain again, he cupped his hand over his nose and felt sick at the wetness “I think I busted my nose up, what happened? Where’d that thing go?” 

Apparently Pete had forgotten about that because he disappeared again and Joe could see a light beam whipping around wildly before he returned “I don’t see or hear anything anymore, it might’ve given up or something. Is the rest of you busted?”

_No but I’m sore like fuck_ Joe thought as he moved his arms and stretched his legs “no, give me a hand out”

There was some struggling due to the ditch walls being so steep (something in Joe’s gut kept telling him this wasn’t nature but man-made steep) but eventually Pete had helped Joe roll onto his back, he tugged on Joe’s coat until he was sitting up and carefully Pete shown the light on his nose; Joe didn’t doubt it wasn’t a pretty sight from the way Pete winced, it hurt like hell and he kept praying it wasn’t broken because he really didn’t want to have to make up some story that he and Pete got into a fight to Shauna. He leaned against Pete as the two began walking again; he didn’t bother questioning if Pete even knew where they were anymore, too tired and sore to really care. The front of his face ached as he lifted his head up to look through the trees for any indication that the moon was going down but all he was met with was foliage and moving shadows, would Bennie come out looking for them? They’d only just met but Joe was holding on to a thin string of hope that Bennie would come out looking for them, maybe with a search party or something. 

“Who’s there” Pete suddenly stopped and Joe nearly fell forward, he whined in pain when Pete pulled him back against him and shined the light ahead “Annie? Is that you?”

There was rustling before Joe could make out 2 figures, two of the girls he recalled seeing from the group.

“what do you mean Annie is that you, she’s not with you guys?” this girl had a painfully bright green coat and Joe wondered if maybe the Jersey Devil was avoiding them because of it “oh shit, what happened to your face?” 

“Did you fall in one of those ditches?” the other girl wore a blue coat and Joe flinched when she reached over to touch his face, quickly she withdrew her hand with a mumbled apology “I told Annie not to go that way, some people dug those a few months ago and no one’s bothered filling them back in. Where’d Annie go?”

“We found a half eaten deer and I decided I didn’t want to be out here if there were any bears or cougars. Annie got mad at us and then we heard something break a branch and we ran away, she pushed Joe down and I don’t know where she went. Is this the way back to the cars? I’m taking Joe back so I can clean his face” Pete had no problem throwing Annie under the bus.

From the way the two girls seemed to deflate Joe wondered if this was a normal occurrence, he realized he wasn’t even sure how close this whole group was and if he and Pete were just temporary newcomers. Green coat girl (Jenna) explained that no actually, Joe and Pete were going in the completely wrong direction but because the weather was starting to get colder than the two had prepared they were going to head back to the van to change into thicker coats and get some gloves. Joe checked out again while walking but he was pretty sure that these two were better conversation than Annie, they didn’t even react when it was brought up that Joe was a skeptic (Joe wasn’t sure what prompted that but he felt pretty stupid when he was caught staring off in to space, blue coat girl-Avery-had apparently been the one to prompt the comment). Around them the trees began to clear up and soon the van and the Saturn were in sight, all 4 were surprised however to see that Annie and the other 7 were around the cars and a sheriff's vehicle was there. 

“There they are!” one of the guy’s pointed at them and Joe felt a little sick when one of the officers looked over at them. 

“What's going on?” Avery looked warily at the officer “have we done something? I thought the Barrens weren’t private property”

“You haven't done anything. My name’s Sheriff Burnes, a few folks in town called about seeing a Cougar out here and we heard there was a group out looking for the Devil” Sheriff Burnes looked at Joe and his eyes got wide “Son what’d you do to your face”

“I fell” Joe mumbled out, could they please just get back to the inn already?

“She took us out to a spot where some ditches are” Pete pointed to Annie who looked shocked and red-faced at being called out “we were spooked by something, probably that cougar that was reported ‘cause we saw a half-eaten deer back there and we started to run back to the cars. Joe tripped on a tree root and fell down the ditch, I’m going to take him back to where we’re staying and get him cleaned up” 

Sheriff Burnes nodded, face scrunched up in thought “you all head back to town now, I don’t want to have to bury a body because a cougar got one of you” 

Joe and Pete didn’t bother to stay behind to object, already heading to their Saturn despite the cryptid group around them arguing and demanding to know when they were going to get rid of the animal. The car ride didn’t help Joe’s face at all; his head was screaming at him and Pete was fuming in the driver’s seat, probably about how Joe was treated tonight and the fact that this whole group didn’t seem to really be as good as he’d hoped. To be honest Joe felt bad about that, Pete had been so excited to meet a cryptid hunting group and all they’d met were some people who didn’t seem to care if someone got hurt while looking. It was a quiet ride back to the inn and both boys sat in the car staring up at the large building anxiously, what if Amy and Shauna were awake? They would be mad, there’s no way they wouldn’t have been, would they kick them out? 

Pete seemed to make his mind up as he exited the driver’s side, as he helped Joe get out Joe noticed something “Pete, where’s the camera?” 

“What-” it clicked then and several emotions crossed Pete’s face, it resulted in him pucnhing the car door and yelling a “ _Fuck!”_

“We can go back” Joe really didn’t want to and he doubted they’d even find it

“Forget it, you’re hurt and I’m not going out there when a fucking cougar could eat my ass” 

Pete hesitated at the doors when he noticed the lights on the lower floor were still on but Joe reassured him it was fine, despite his face injury he recalled Bennie said they’d be awake making pie; Pete flinched when Joe knocked on the doors and in hindsight it probably wasn’t a good idea but lucky for them Shauna and Amy were heavy sleepers, unlucky for them when Bennie opened the doors the kid’s eyes practically bugged out of their skull and their mouth was open in shock. 

“What the fuck happened to your face!” Bennie snapped out of shock just as fast, grabbing both boys’ arms and surprising them by pulling them inside “You leave to go find the Jersey Devil and come back with a busted nose! What did you spit in some hick’s face?” 

They hurried further into the home and the boys followed, Bennie told them to go to the dining room and when they entered soon after they had a bag of cotton balls with a bottle of peroxide. 

“This is going to hurt like a bitch but unless you guys have the money for a doctor’s visit you’ll have to wait for Shauna and Amy in the morning” 

It was painful but quick and soon Joe’s nose was cleaned with bandages placed around it courtesy of Bennie going back to the supply closet. Pete and Joe only got a minor lecture from them, the whole time the boys sat in awkward guilty silence until Bennie was done and asked if they wanted some pie or not; rhubarb pie placed in front of them and glasses of Mt. Dew as well, the two sat in silence while Bennie went to the kitchen to clean up.

“There’s a library if you guys can’t sleep, I don’t know much of what you could do there but it’s an option if you want” Bennie called from the kitchen

“Works for me” Pete grabbed his plate and glass and headed to the kitchen.

Joe still sat at the dining table chewing on his pie in thought; Bennie had wanted to say something before the two had left, he was sure of that, but what? Was it something they couldn’t say in front of Pete or was Joe just hung up on nothing? Ugh, his head hurt too much for this shit. He finally finished his pie and passed by Pete who to no surprise said he was going to chill in the library, Joe placed his dishes in the sink but paused and looked over at Bennie looking through a cupboard (probably taking inventory though Joe was pretty sure Bennie had been waiting for him). 

“Those ditches are because someone got killed a few weeks ago” Bennie finally said, a hearing that made a stone drop in Joe’s stomach “I don’t know if it was the same group of people that were here last week but if it was then I bullshitted a story that those ditches have been here for a few months”

“Someone _died_ and you lied about the ditches?” Joe suddenly wasn’t sure if he liked this kid much anymore “how’d they die? What happened?” 

Bennie didn’t answer for a few seconds before they set down the notebook they were writing in and turned to look at Joe “there was a man that wasn’t a good person, he mistreated his family a lot but the sheriff’s never had enough evidence. A lot of people thought it was one of his sons that did it, I wouldn’t have blamed the guy if he had but…” Bennie looked around as if someone was listening before speaking in a hushed tone “one of the sheriff’s isn’t too good at staying quiet, I asked him about the autopsy and he said that the report had never seen anything like it. A few of the men from the town nearby went out and dug their own traps, those ditches are only a few weeks old but I was tired of this group that kept coming back asking about whether the family had anything to do with the Jersey Devil that I lied and said they were months old”

Now Joe felt queasy, maybe he looked it too because Bennie stepped closer and looked at him with concern “you should lay down, that nose might be broken and I don’t think you want to faint here” 

Joe let them walk with him up to his room, his brain was still registering the fact that there had been a mysterious murder and not even an autopsy doctor knew what it was when a thought hit him.

“How often are cougars out here?” Bennie’s face flickered for a moment before Joe could read the expression they had “the Jersey Devil isn’t real, it was probably a cougar that attacked the guy”

“You’re probably right” Bennie didn’t say anything after that and bid Joe goodnight at the door

He changed out of his jeans and shirt and curled up into a ball under the covers on his bed, it occurred to Joe that Pete was downstairs so he could’ve moved to Pete’s bed instead of being by the one looking at the window but exhaustion took hold and before he knew it his eyes were heavy and he was out like a light.

* * *

Windows don’t have eyes; windows are a pane of glass and wood surrounding it in a frame and sometimes they’ll have a little wood piece called the window pane, windows _don’t_ have goat eyes- _are_ those goat eyes? Joe is pretty sure that goat eyes have a rectangle shaped pupil- that glow a grey color. There’s fog on the glass too but that can’t be right, because Joe swears that the weather was only cold and that if there was fog it should be covering the whole window and not just the lower part of the window where the eyes are; certainly the window shouldn’t be moving because Joe is pretty sure that he is still laying down and that he has _not_ touched the window so that it was now open. 

Hmm, Joe’s pretty sure that he’s the only one in the room right now because Pete was….he was down in the library wasn’t he? And Bennie didn’t stay with Joe, they were doing inventory; so who is that standing near the window now? They look funny, Joe’s pretty sure goats don’t have wings and they most certainly do not have bowed legs! Oh but what’s this? Goats do have fur, Joe is certain of that, but he’s not sure...no wait, he’s pretty sure there are goats that are reddish furred so that does check out. Geez, it’s so cold now, can’t this person close the window? Joe huffed and tossed the comforter off of him, the least this weird winged goat could do is not let a chill in! The wooden floor has already become extremely cold and Joe’s a little miffed so he doesn’t think much when he walks past this weird goat-stranger, god is he dreaming? Most likely, he’s pretty sure that people don’t usually have _that_ hairy of elbows but then again he’s met a few people that look like they’re wearing sweaters when it’s their body hair. 

Window shut and satisfied, Joe stumbled back to his bed and curled on top of the covers, too exhausted to get under; behind him he heard the goat-stranger huff and part of Joe wanted to wake up because this dream was getting on his fucking nerves but honestly dreams changed on their won so eventually he knew the dream would stop dicking with him and he’d be fine. There were footsteps and Joe pressed his eyelids together tighter and scrunched his face in annoyance, dammit was he going to have to wake up for some peace and quiet? There was a soft thud and _again_ the damn window was being opened but this time Joe heard it being shut so satisfied he didn’t have to move in his dream again he went back to being unconscious of the dream.


	3. Chapter 3

Getting crushed by a skinny yet somehow heavy friend was a normal alarm clock for Joe, so when instead of that he was gently being nudged in the shoulder repeatedly until he opened his eyes was new but welcome since his nose decided to remind him it was in pain. 

“Hey come on, breakfast is ready and we have to take you in to see if your nose is broken” Pete was already moving away and over to their duffel bags “I told Shauna you slipped on your up to the steps and bashed your nose, the kid helped keep that fib up so we’re in luck and Shauna isn’t going to kick us out”

Joe didn’t make a comment, just caught his shirt and jeans that Pete threw to him and headed to the bathroom in the hall; Pete said something but it was muffled by the door, Joe headed back into their room but stopped in the doorway to stare at what Pete was holding. 

It was their night vision camera. 

In one piece, a little muddy and leaf-y but in one piece. 

How the fuck. 

“S’not broken, see?” Pete held it up as if Joe could tell from where he stood “Bennie said one of the sheriff’s found it while looking for that cougar last night, they dropped it off and Bennie put in our room last night. They didn’t wake you up right?” 

A feeling began to creep into Joe’s mind at this question, whether it was fear or confusion he wasn’t sure “uh, no, I stayed asleep the whole night. Had a weird ass dream though, it might’ve just been me hearing Bennie walking in or something” 

“Weird dream huh” Pete ducked at Joe throwing his dirty shirt at him “I didn’t say anything! That was all on you, Trohman”

“The way you said it insinutated-!”

2 loud knocks on the door made them jump “boys hurry it up! Breakfast is getting cold and we still need to take you to the doctor’s Joe!” 

“Sorry Shauna!” both called back.

Breakfast ended up being in the backseat of Amy’s pickup truck, Joe felt guilty hearing Amy apologize about how she should’ve checked the front porch stairs and made sure the boards were even but he agreed with Pete about not wanting to have to find new lodging. The doctor’s visit was fast thankfully; it hurt like hell as they examined Joe’s nose but the end result was that he had only bruised his nose, Amy insisted she paid for the check-up and Joe rest for the remainder of the day. 

“I’ve got to get some groceries so you boys can come with but right after we’re heading back to the inn. I’m not your mom, Joe, but I don’t want you getting hurt anymore while with us” neither Pete or Joe argued with her. 

“Meet me back at the truck when you’re done looking around, just ignore all the stares too. New people and all that” Amy instructed once they reached the grocery store.

Pete to no surprise went right to the candy aisle, Joe fought the urge to pull his hood over his head at all the stares they were getting though he wondered if it was more the hyper-active adult than them being newcomers; eventually Pete settled on a box of Mike’n’Ikes and 3 Twix bars before they headed to the counter. 

“You okay?” Pete asked when he noticed Joe hovering close to the shelves “headache? We could probably grab some Ibuprofen” 

“Just uncomfortable with all the stares” Joe tugged at his sleeve, sighed, then grabbed a bag of M&Ms “yeah I’d like some pain meds, let’s just hurry up and go” 

The cashier was a tired looking woman that seemed to be sizing the two boys up before finishing up their transaction and if Joe more or less speed-walked to the truck he wasn’t one to notice or care. 

“Isn’t this a little weird? Having so many people stare at us? I mean, is this normal small town stuff?” Joe munched on some M&Ms and stared out of one of the windows.

“Maybe the sheriffs last night put out a warning about Annie’s group,  _ watch out for these criminals, they’ll try and steal your tires  _ or something” Pete laughed and elbowed Joe “calm down man, they’re not gonna put us at the stake or something. We’ve still got a while to be down here so they’ll have time to get used to seeing us and if they keep staring we can start giving them things to stare at”

“I’d rather  _ not  _ give them a reason to call the police on us” Joe elbowed back just as hard and expected it to turn into a childish fight when the passenger door opened and he jumped. 

“You boys better not be rough-housing or you can walk back to the house” Amy hummed “you can fight in the woods if you want but if you get that nose broken after all I’m sending you back to Chicago”

“The cougar would probably get us first” Joe wished he had bitten his tongue as soon as he said that

It seemed though that luck was favoring them today “oh good, Bennie told you about it then. Saves me the trouble of Shauna going overboard on lecturing” 

When Amy shut the passenger door to go to the driver’s Pete punched Joe’s arm and gave him a dirty glare, Joe kicked his ankle and smugly smirked at him when Amy got back in the truck since that meant he couldn’t hit back. The ride back somehow felt longer this and the trees all blended together, as Joe stared out the window a strange creeping feeling started to crawl through his brain, it was eerily familiar and the more he strained his eyes to look through the woods he  _ swore  _ that there was something keeping up with the truck- Joe didn’t mean to scream but he did, especially as several deer suddenly charged out of the woods. 

“ _ Fuck!”  _ Amy shrieked as she slammed on the breaks, somehow missing the deer and only skidding a few feet ahead “what in the hell was that?” 

Pete had grabbed onto Joe-probably in a way of keeping him safe from slamming his face into the back of the passenger seat- so when he spoke it was right in Joe’s ear “who the fuck are they?” 

They being a few people that looked like rangers probably, Amy let out a string of cusses before exiting the driver’s side and leaving Joe and Pete feeling very lost; Amy looked like she was fuming, one of the rangers even took a step back as she stood in front of them and from what Joe could tell started demanding to know what was going on or what just happened. 

Pete had untangled his arms from around Joe and was mother-hen looking over his face before nodding and turning his attention back to Amy “what do you think that was all about, chasing the deer in the road?” 

“I don't think they _ meant  _ for the deer to run into the road” Joe glanced back where they came from, had he made up seeing some kind of figure? That had to be it, it was probably the deer running “fuck if I know what they were doing though, I’m not a park ranger” 

“Well they could’ve gotten us killed” Pete huffed and leaned back in his seat

A thought struck Joe “do you think those guys from last night are still out? Maybe they did something and the rangers were out checking on it” 

“Maybe, wouldn’t surprise me from how opposed they were to having to leave” 

Amy returned to the truck still fuming, she slammed the door and grumbled to herself the whole drive back before turning down the dirt road to the Inn “sorry about that, guess they think they found the cougar and they spooked some deer on accident. Let’s just get home now” 

* * *

Pete offered to help Amy with the groceries so Joe headed up to their room to rest, what he didn’t expect was to find the door open and Bennie scrubbing away at the floor; he awkwardly coughed and Bennie screeched in surprise.

“Jeez, hi, you spooked me” they sat back on their knees and looked up at him “how’s your nose?”

“It's alright, doctor said it was only bruised...what are you doing?”

There was a split second confusion before it clicked “oh, washing the floor, Shauna noticed your guys’ window wasn’t locked anymore so she was worried last night it had gotten dirty in here and she didn’t want you guys to come back to a dirty room so she had me come up here and clean up”

Joe felt cold at that, the window was unlocked? As in it  _ had  _ been locked before? “Um, thanks I appreciate it. Was there mud on the floor?”

“Little bit, some leaves blew in here so I threw them back out and started scrubbing up the mud. Don’t worry about it, it’s not worth being hung up on” Bennie said the last part quickly as they grabbed the bucket and walked by Joe “rest up okay? That nose will be hurting like hell for a while” 

Joe waited until they disappeared down the stairs before dropping to the floor quickly, there was no fucking way what was trying to whisper its way into his brain was true but the only way he was going to know is if he was lucky enough that Bennie had missed a spot. A dusty shirt and jacket later plus a nickle and 3 pennies richer Joe had found nothing, he felt incredibly stupid as he lay back on his bed and stared out into the trees; why the hell would that dream have been real? Even if the cold wind had felt real and the sound of- _ Bennie had said the window was locked _ .

He slipped and hit the floor on one knee-which hurt like fucking hell  _ holy shit _ -but pushed himself back to his feet as he stood in front of the window looking around it like a mad-man. Joe had no idea what he was even looking for as he felt around the frame and the pane, prints? Scratch marks? Fucking goat hair? Oh for fuck’s sake! Joe backed away and groaned, pressing his palms to his eyes until he saw dots, it was a ridiculous dream brought on by poor sleep! There had been no weird grey-eyed coat creature with wings, and there hadn’t been someone opening the window! The camera was returned by a  _ human _ , not some ludicrous...slowly he lowered his arms and stared out into the yard. 

Someone was walking towards the tree line, backpack on their back and an ice cream tub in their hand; what the hell was Bennie doing? A sense of some undefinable overwhelming feeling hit Joe then and he promptly lay on his stomach on the bed and pressed his face to the pillow, too much was going on  _ way  _ too fast for him to process and a nap seemed very smart right then.

It lasted not even 10 minutes.

A jolt of dread shot through Joe and he shot up straight, looking right at the window before scrambling towards it like a frantic baby deer; he threw it open with too much ease and had to plant both arms on either side of the frame before he almost flipped out of it, once he was calmed down he started to feel around outside for...well for anything. It had to be a dream he kept repeating to himself like a chant in his mind; it had to be a dream, it had to be a dream, it had to be a dream, it-

Chipped paint and wood turned to something fuzzy and coarse, his breath hitched as he pulled it off the side and stared at a small tuft of ginger between his thumb and index finger. No, this meant nothing, squirrels could be ginger for fuck’s sake and they no doubt crawled around the house too so Joe was just making a big deal out of some crazy dream...so why couldn’t he makle himself believe that? 

He needed to call Patrick. 

“ _ Joe?”  _ Patrick answered before the second ring “ _ is everything okay?” _

“I had this fucking dream that the Jersey Devil was in my room last night and now I can’t get it out of my head and it’s all your damn boyfriend’s fault” Joe barely breathed between the two syllables and felt sick once it was all out

“ _ That doesn’t surprise me. I had this stupid dream about the Enfiled horror for a few weeks because Pete was so obssessed with it. You wanna talk about the dream or do you want reassurance you’re not going crazy?” _

He didn’t know “how’s your uncle’s place?” 

“ _ You’re evading the question, Trohman. Dude you know as much as I give you shit I’m not going to judge you for having a nightmare”  _ he hated how sincere Patrick sounded “ _ we don’t have to talk about it okay? Just know it was a really bad nightmare and that’s all. Your head is going to try making you thinking it was real for a bit but you’ll be fine”  _

“This morning there was a kid that works here scrubbing the floor and they were being shady about it. I even saw them head into the woods with a backpack and an ice cream, Patrick, what the hell would they need and ice cream tub for in the woods? And-and I found some fur on the side of the house that was the same color as the thing in my dream” _ shut the hell up Trohman and just let him convince you everything is fine! _

_ “Maybe the room was still dirty when you guys got there and they waited for you to be out so they could clean it. I don’t know if you know this Joe but animals tend to have fur too, so it could’ve been anything”  _ Patrick had a hint of sarcasm in his tone but Joe knew he was still being sincere “ _ take a deep breath man, okay? If you want I give you permission to punch Pete, just make sure he knows I said you could and he can’t hit back”  _

“No thanks, don’t know if he told you but I busted my face”

“ _ Yeah I heard. Go lay down, I don’t want you stresing your face or whatever worse”  _

“Thanks mom, I’ll keep that in mind. Bye”

“ _ Bye joe” _

He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and sighed heavily, Patrick was right he just needed to chill out about the dream. Joe dropped the fur back out the window and closed it but paused; Bennie had returned and was walking towards the house but the ice cream tub was missing and so was the backpack, their jeans and shoes were darker now and covered in what Joe guessed was mud. Okay, this was reminding Joe  _ way  _ too much of murder stories and either he needed to try taking another nap or he needed to find the nearest car ride back to Chicago. His sleep addled brain made the choice for him when he nearly tripped on his way back to the bed, his nose started throbbing and Joe decided if he died from a nose-bleed in the middle of nowhere woods New Jersey then it had at least been a nice life. 


	4. Chapter 4

Waking up felt like someone had dropped a boiling hot iron on his face tied with a cinder block, Joe didn’t give a shit if someone saw him stumbling downstairs with tears running down his face he just needed some pain meds; lucky for him someone did and that someone being Pete.

“Whoa, whoa, hey, hey” Pete caught Joe’s arm as he nearly slipped off the second to last step “what happen-oh shit your face right, come on I think Amy has some pain meds or something from the doctor’s” 

When did Amy get medicine? Joe just shrugged that thought away and followed Pete to the back porch area, the two ladies of the house were sitting in old plastic chairs going through binders; Shauna started asking Pete questions when the two boys walked in about their opinions on what could be improved in the house or if everything was alright (Pete was being extremely polite but Joe could tell he didn’t have much to say since the inn was still clearly under work).

“Joe how’s your nose feeling? Need some medication? The doctor gave me some if the pain starts up” Amy finally chimed in, both boys got the feeling when she was used to having to stop her wife’s inquires often.

“That’s actually why we came down here, he woke up from his nap and almost fell down the stairs” Joe shot the back of Pete’s head a glare, he didn’t need to make it sound  _ that  _ dramatic.

“Oh you poor thing” Amy stood and walked over to a small cabinet attached to the wall, she handed Pete a small pharmacy bag and a slip of paper, “the paper says how many you can take a day and between hours. Follow it and please don’t abuse the meds, we’ve already had an incident like that and I’d rather it not happen again”

“He won’t, Joe’s a golden boy” either Amy could see what Pete meant by his shit-eating grin or she didn’t care, either way she sat back down and Shauna resumed asking about what they could do for the Inn. 

The dining room seemed to have become their recreational room because Joe found himself sitting there again with a glass of AJ Pete had found in the fridge and 2 pills placed neatly on a napkin. In a way that reminded Joe of an all-too-cocky father way, Pete announced he was going to make the two of them PB&J and that he had found a VHS player so they could watch old cartoons if they wanted. Joe downed the pills and the rest of the AJ when he choked at Bennie seemingly appearing out of thin air. 

“What the fuck-trying to kill me here-god it’s in my fucking nose now” Joe spluttered out as he tried regaining his breath 

“Were you guys in the backyard?” Bennie sounded pissed, it was a little hard to take seriously because their face was scrunched up like an angry bunny.

“What? No, we haven’t even been here that long. Pete’s been in the library and I’ve been sleeping and incase you forgot my face is fucked up” Joe wiped his mouth with his sleeve and glared back “do you go around accusing guests often?” 

“When they’re supposed cryptid hunters yes” Bennie’s glare softened a little and they sighed “I work really hard on those flower beds in the back and I went to check on them earlier and a few of the flowers were squashed. The reason I asked is because it’s one of the flower beds under your guys’ room” 

Joe shook his head “no, we haven’t been out back. Is it just flower beds?”

“No, we’re planning on having some other stuff out back incase people ever bring their kids. There’s an old playset, a see-saw Amy had put in recently and this little house stage thingy” Bennie scrunched their nose in thought “um...something with a p”

“A pavilion?” Bennie nodded “what’s that for?”

“In case the adults wanna chill outside or something” with a shrug Bennie left the room, calling over their shoulder “you guys can check the backyard out but stay away from my flowerbeds please!” 

Joe only hummed and stared down at his empty glass, cogs were starting to turn in his head and he began to wonder if any of those people in that cryptid group had followed them back to the Inn or if they already knew about the Inn. Bennie had mentioned that Shauna and Amy don’t like the whole Jersey Devil deal because people steal shit from the Inn so maybe it was them and they did know about this place. That would’ve been creepy though, if they did know this place then had they assumed Joe and Pete were staying here? And why the hell did they hang out under their window if it was them? He shook his head, no no, it could’ve been an animal or soemthing; this whole trip had Joe’s nerves on edge and he  _ really  _ didn’t like it, he wasn’t used to feeling this out of his game and now he had some kind of weird nightmare fucking him up.

*

The backyard was pretty much what Joe had expected, wide open and the forest looking right at them; the playset despite being old looked like it was at least taken care of, Joe suspected it was another one of Amy’s projects since it was half-painted and the slide was laying next to it, and the pavilion looked brand new. He and Pete sat in some chairs that were sitting around and looking out to the woods, beside him Pete was going on about something regarding the Pine Barrens and honestly Joe wasn’t paying enough attention to really care. He’d meant to check out the flowerbeds to see if his theory about animals was right (it had  _ nothing  _ to do with his dream, he kept telling himself, just to see if it was animals or if maybe there were shoe prints) when Pete heard about the pavilion and said some fresh air would be good for Joe’s nose. 

“You okay?” Pete’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, he stared at him for a few seconds, “you just seem really out of it” 

“Oh. don’t worry, I’m fine, just feeling shitty from falling” Pete narrowed his eyes at him “what, Patrick didn’t tell you?” 

“Just because he’s my boyfriend doesn’t mean he doesn’t keep his friends secrets. If you’re mad at me for dragging you out here that’s fine, I’m the reason your nose got fucked up” 

Joe groaned and rubbed at his face with both hands “no, I’m not mad at you for taking me out here. I came willingly anyway, idiot” he wasn’t sure if he could tell Pete about it but if anyone was an expert on nightmares… “I had this freaky dream that..I think the Jersey Devil was in our room- _ in the dream!  _ Not in real life” 

“Aw dude” and now Pete looked guilt-stricken, Joe was expecting him to laugh at him not to feel like he was the cause of Joe’s nightmare “I told you-”

“I told  _ you  _ that I came out here willingly” Joe snapped “we’re not having this again, okay? You’re not the cause of my nightmares Pete. I probably have some kind of trauma from falling in that ditch…” 

_ Someone got killed a few weeks ago  _ those words still sparked dread in Joe’s stomach.

“Did you know someone got killed a few weeks ago?” Pete looked like he’d been slapped “I asked Bennie about it and Shauna and Amy told that group that Bennie mentioned, I think it was the group we were with, that those ditches were months old. They’re not, they said the ditches were dug last week because some dude was murdered and the police around here don’t know who” 

Silence, then a very soft “holy shit” 

Joe felt weary now, glancing back to the woods like something was watching them “look I know you wanted to go cryptid hunting but aren’t there any safer ones we could’ve gone looking for? I’m not saying we’re gonna get murdered out here Pete but-”

“What the fuck did you guys do!” both boys shrieked and jumped, Joe catching Pete from falling as they both stared at an angered Bennie “did you tell them where you were staying! They’re practically threatening to bust down the door!”

“Who?” Pete snapped back, now he looked pissed but then it clicked “no! We didn’t tell that group where we were staying” 

Bennie let out a sound that resembled an angered cat before running back to the Inn, Pete glanced at Joe before the two took off after them (Joe made a mental note to lock himself in their room because all this running was making his nose hurt again); around the front of the house Joe spotted the van from their hunting night (it was rusted, looking like it went through a hail storm and had the sloppiest looking logo painted on the side that Joe assumed was Bigfoot) and the owners of the van were standing a few feet away from the front porch because Shauna was brandishing an iron poker. 

“I told you all to stay away from here or I’ll call the cops again!” her voice was shrill and it was obvious she was scared, beside her Bennie had actually barred their teeth like an enraged animal

Joe assumed it was because of the tall and broad-shouldered guy standing next to Annie “lady we’re paying customers. We already know you have two people staying here, let us in” 

“You stole our microwave, toaster, several photos that were antiques, and the sheriff’s down in town already have your faces on record. Get out of here or we’re calling them” Joe was impressed at how vicious Bennie sounded, so much for being a quiet kid. 

The third girl, a lot smaller than Annie or the big dude, scoffed as if this was new to her “we already paid and gave you all that stuff back! You’re acting like we’re wanted-”

The doors to the inn swung open and Amy stood there with a shotgun pointed at the group “get off my land,  _ now”  _

All 3 took a step back, cleary afraid when Annie happened to look in the direction Pete and Joe were standing in.

Fuck.

Joe had seen the look of disgust and rage on all 3 people’s faces before; in school, at clubs and bars when Pete got him in despite Joe cleary not being old enough, a few people’s he’s managed to get into fights with in the past and so on. Right now though, he was afraid that the big dude would try swinging at them and he wouldn’t put it past Annie to have a knife with her. 

“Oh you’ll let  _ them  _ stay here but you won’t let us? What kind of bullshit is that!” 

Joe wonderd if Pete felt as sick as he did when Amy and Shauna looked over at them, time to start hunting for a hotel-

“Just because you guys ran into them in town doesn’t mean that they’re like you! I heard you guys went on another cryptid hunt, I bet you were harassing them and that’s how Joe got his face fucked up” thank whoever Bennie was present and convincing.

And apparently this sparked some confidence in Shauna “I’m done with this, I’m calling the cops” 

“You can’t fucking call the cops on us just for wanting room!” despite Annie shouting this her two companions were now retreating to their van “this is bullshit, I’ll call the cops on  _ you _ for denying-”

Amy pumped the shotgun and Annie’s tongue seemed to get glued to her mouth “I still have evidence of you and your friends stealing shit from us, I have a restraining order waiting  _ just for you  _ and I have my wife calling the cops right now. Do you really want to make this worse than it is?”

Annie looked back at Joe and Pete, to Bennie, then Amy, then the gun before making some kind of an angry almost animal noise and running to the van. It sped off up the road and there silence, Joe however screeched and fell into Pete when Amy fired the gun off into the air.

“You boys alright?” she asked once they walked up to the porch “is what Bennie said true?” 

“About what-oh. Uh, yeah, we ran into them while hanging out in town and I guess they heard me talking to Joe? They didn’t bug us long” Pete sounded sincere enough it worked. 

Amy sighed heavily and rubbed at her temple “I’m sorry, I doubt your aunt sent you out here to deal with this kind of shit. Then your friend ends up getting hurt, this must be the worst vacation you two have had”

“No we’ve had a great vacation, I mean we’ve only been here for two days but it’s been nice” Joe didn’t want to leave this place having the owners think their day was shitty 

Amy smiled gratefully at them then frowned at Bennie “you been talking to the cops again?”

They shrugged “Burnes came by while you were gone to check up and see if Joe and Pete were okay”

It was clear to the boys Amy didn’t approve of this but left it, she headed back into the Inn and Bennie sank to the step with an exasperated and loud sigh.

“So I was right in assuming it was them that stole from you guys” Joe sat on a lower step “what the hell is that girl’s deal?” 

Bennie went from looking tired to being stone faced in a nano-second “she’s selfish is all, that’s it. She thinks it’s dumb we’re not some tourist attraction for the Jersey Devil since we live in the Pine Barrens practically and she and her friends tried stealing stuff, probably thought they could pawn it off or something. You know that chandelier you guys asked about? They tried stealing it and claimed we made it out of Jersey Devil remains. Fucking shit,  _ I  _ made the damn thing becasue I wanted to give Amy a present” 

“You don’t think we’re like that right?” 

Bennie stared at Pete confused “dude no, if you were like them then you’d probably have accused me of knowing about the Jersey Devil’s whereabouts by now” 

_ That  _ caught Joe’s attention “what do you mean?”

“Oh fuck’s sake” Bennie groanned and pulled at their cheeks “okay so did you guys see my flower beds? So the flowers there are called Asters and some Asters grow out in the woods. Sometimes I’ll go out and uproot some to plant in my garden and when Annie and her friends were here they thought I was going out and feeding the Jersey devil because I had a backpack and I put the flowers in an ice cream tub” 

Pete made a joke about Bennie being a park thief but something about this explanation felt...too convenient for Joe, did Bennie know Joe had seen them going into the woods? He mused over this while Pete and Bennie started talking about other things, maybe it was a good thing he turned their conversation out because he was pretty sure he heard the sound of vehicle somewhere near the side of the house. He was up and jogging over to check around the porch, behind he heard his name called but that was ignored as he saw through the trees a shitty purple van. 

“Oh those  _ fuckers!”  _ he heard Bennie yell “you guys see what they’re doing, I’m gonna see if Shauna called the cops off!” 

Pete was beside Joe fast and the two boys rounded the house to see the guy and smaller girl tearing up Bennie’s flowerbeds.

“Hey you fuckers! What the hell are you doing?” Pete sounded pissed and Joe was as well “Bennie fucking took time on those!” 

The guy stood up while the girl continued ripping the flowers up “why don’t you two go back inside, alright? We’re busy” 

“You’re trespassing and vandalizing!” Joe’s head had slowly started ringing from all the yelling and he was sure he needed another pain pill “what the fuck is wrong with you guys? Do you want to go to jail!”

“These people should go to jail for denying us housing! I’m pretty sure that’s illegal” the guy had started walking towards them and behind him the girl had stopped destroying the flowers “we’re conducting research alright? We’ve got a right to be here” 

Joe grabbed Pete’s arm and wrapped it against him, if the cops did show up and they saw Pete fighting they could take him in too “Bennie’s calling the cops right now, you two need to leave” 

The dude stopped a few feet away from them, Joe himself wanted to punch that smug look off his face and he could tell Pete did too from the way he was practically shaking; at the front of the house came a distant screeching of wheels coming to a halt and Joe finally let go of Pete’s arm, the guy’s face turned pale as running steps came from behind Joe and Pete. 

“Ruben Miller and Maya Cook” 2 officers walked by the toy boys, the one speaking didn’t look too impressed “first trespassing on land you were already warned off of and now vandalism? You two are certainly making a record for yourselves. What’s next, going to confess to the murder of Ronald Snyder?” 

Ruben didn’t try running, the dude looked scared shitless compared to his earlier attitude, and in the background Maya had held her hands up and trembled like a tree in a storm; both officers cuffed them and walked them back to the front of the house, Joe looked over at the front porch and winced seeing Bennie standing there. Once the two were in the back of the patrol car one of the officers went inside, Bennie walked past the boys like they were on a death march and Pete followed after them with Joe in tow; before they’d even seen the flowerbeds their shoulders had begun to shake with obvious sobs, once they rounded the corner though the most pain filled cry either boy had heard broke out and they stood there sobbing. Pete walked over and gently pulled on their jacket sleeve, quietly Joe heard him asking if they were okay (it was obvious they weren’t but even Joe felt sympathetic towards the kid). 

Pete pulled them along with him, mouthing to Joe ‘ _ I’m taking them inside’  _ and Joe just nodded to him as he walked over to the muddy mess of ripped up plants and broken petals; he felt sick, how could anyone treat these kind people at this Inn the way those cryptid hunters did? Joe sighed and pressed a hand over his left eye at a pang of pain, today was too fucking much and it felt a whole week had already passed with how tired he was. Joe knelt down and picked up one of the surviving flowers, it looked like it had been perfectly uprooted so maybe Bennie could at least save this one-

The side of the house right about the flower bed had scratch marks on it, marks that looked like something tried climbing and struggled at first to get up the wall; Joe felt cold as he looked back down at the dirt again to see that where Maya hadn’t ruined the ground there were prints...Joe wasn’t an animal expert but he was pretty sure that as much as his brain tried to rationalize it and convince him, he was sure deer prints didn’t look like that. He looked towards the woods with the cold feeling growing worse, why did it feel like something was looking at him now? No, he was just psyching himself out; Joe placed the flower back down and headed inside, he needed to take more pain meds and just sleep until tomorrow morning.    



	5. Chapter 5

Joe didn’t have any too-real dreams that night, instead he woke up to Pete on the floor at an angle that looked like his body had become gumby-like; quietly he slid off his bed and went to the window, no signs that it had been opened at all and no claw marks around the frame. He winced as the window squeaked and protested as he tried opening it, this didn’t happen in that dream because no way in hell this wouldn't have woken him up and down below he didn’t see any prints around either (though he was a fair amount above the ground, it wasn’t like he had hawk vision); satisfied with this he started to close the window again before pausing and peeking his head back out, the flowerbeds were fixed and it looked like any trace of yesterday was gone. 

No, okay no, there was no reason to freak out about this. It was obvious what happened, after all Bennie had been in a terrible state yesterday when Joe had gone back inside so it was obvious that they had probably gone out and gotten more from the woods; he shut the window and headed to the bathroom to do his daily routine, his nose felt a little less shitty today and Pete was determined for them to find some place in town to hang out (“it’ll be better than cryptid looking right?”). Pete had started snoring in their room so Joe headed downstairs, on the reception desk there was a piece of paper propped up so he assumed it was meant for them:

_ Joe or Pete: Shauna and I went into town to talk to the sheriff’s office about Annie’s group’s actions yesterday. Breakfast is whatever you want, we need to go grocery shopping today so the Inn is all yours so dont break anything. I know you boys aren’t responsible for it but could you make sure Bennie’s alright today? They’ve locked themselves in their room since yesterday and I can’t blame them and they haven’t left since then so when you boys leave can you at least make sure they ate? Thanks- Amy _

_ Well they fixed their garden while you weren’t paying attention  _ Joe thought as he set the note back down, in the middle of making himself a sandwich and a bowl of mandarin oranges movement in the back caught his eye “hey! Who the fuck is back there?”

The someone either hit their head against the side of the house or dropped something, either way they took off running towards the trees and despite Joe’s gut saying maybe he should yell for Pete he was out through the backdoor and across the yard; whoever he was chasing was already disappearing in the distance, how the fuck was this person so fast? Joe stopped and nearly face-planted forward into a bush due to the mud, once he gained his balance he realized he had no idea where he was and looking over his shoulder he didn’t even see any footprints. Joe had crouched down and checked the dirt around to see that yep, somehow he hadn’t even left a single imprint; panic didn’t start setting in until Joe found himself still wandering even though he was walking the same path he had ran from the Inn. 

Damn it, he didn’t even have his phone on him, it wasn’t like he’d planned on running out to the woods this morning. Why the hell did he even do that? He should’ve gone to the back and seen if there even was any damage! Mentally cursing himself Joe finally decided to sit under a tree and kick at the ground; berating himself wouldn’t get him anywhere now so all he could do was try and think of what to do...god he was screwed wasn’t he? Unless a fucking miracle happened he’d be wandering out here for-something rustled and made Joe jump, he scrambled around on his hands in knees as he crawled into a bush to hide (no he didn’t know why he wasn’t just running, his brain was going too many directions to think clearly). Through the foliage he expected to see some kind of an animal, maybe a raccoon or possibly a deer, instead he could see ripped up pants at an awkward angle and a fist full of the flowers Bennie had planted; that had to have been whoever Joe saw running away, cautiously he started to creep forward but froze tight as a bow string when he saw their body move to face where he was hiding. 

_ Well, they have flowers, maybe they fixed the flowerbeds over night, they could be a friend of Bennie’s  _ Joe still felt on edge and started to slowly creep backwards best he could. 

Everything happened fast then; someone or thing came crashing through the trees to the right, the legs in front of Joe made a dive towards the bushes to his left, and whatever had crashed through the woods let out a sound that Joe was sure he’d hear in his nightmares. He opened his mouth to scream as fear sparked up but that was squashed along with him as whoever had been to the left was suddenly on top of him with their arm wrapped around his head covering his mouth, part of Joe was telling him to start fighting but the more fear induced part of him kept silent; the something that had been crashing through the woods came into view, Joe recognized the mud covered shoes as a sheriff, soon after another pair joined them and Joe felt the person on top of him tense up. 

“I swear I saw them again” 

“You better not have had me run after you for nothing, Jones” Joe recognized that voice, it was the cop from the cryptid hunt, Burnes “you’ve been listening to Annie too much, you know there isn’t anything out here” 

“Yes sir…” Jones sounded deflated and the pair of shoes disappeared from sight, above him Joe felt the person begin to relax until Jones shouted “hey what’s that in the bush?”

Joe couldn’t move his neck to see what he was talking about but he knew Jones was talking about their bush, his face was starting to hurt from how the arm was tightening around it and he was sure his nose was bleeding again; a series of curses ran through Joe’s mind as he started trying to wriggle out from under the form on top of him, he had no intention of going to jail in a state he wasn’t from or being seen with someone on top of him. 

“ _ Fucking stop moving” _ the person on top of him hissed, moving their arm now so Joe’s throat was pressed to it uncomfortably and placed his other hand over Joe’s mouth.

Okay, so now Joe knew the person could talk, they could talk and apparently had fucking horns on their head...or maybe it was some weird hat? Yeah right, he was starting to give up on trying to reason with things; Jones’ shoes were right in front of the bush now and Joe felt sick, please don’t kneel down he thought repeatedly, he wasn’t even sure why he thought he’d get thrown in jail but this whole town had started to feel like it was hiding things. He shut his eyes tightly and held his breath, there was the sound of the leaves moving around and then retreating; a few seconds passed and Joe opened his eyes to stare in confusion at the shoes now walking away.

“Well?” Burnes sounded annoyed.

“Um...guess it was some fucked up prank…” Jones sounded ashamed “you think it was Annie’s group?” 

“Wouldn’t surprise me-dear God is there still  _ blood  _ on the end of it? Bring it with, we can question them on this” 

The shoes disappeared and Joe felt relief before he squeaked as he was roughly hauled up by whoever had been laying on him, nearly tripping over his own feet before being steadied; the first thing he noticed about this person was that they were shorter than him, which was a very normal thing and odd since the first thing he should have noticed was the fact that this dude had one single horn coming out of the left side of his head and a bloody patch of missing hair and skin on the right. Okay, so ignoring the queasy feeling aside, Joe was also pretty sure it was weird that he was wearing shades but at this point he was still too hung up on the horn thing. Words weren’t coming to mind but that didn’t seem to matter, horn-dude grabbed Joe’s arm and started dragging him in a direction, Joe let out a small noise because he wasn’t even sure what was going on or where they were going, he kept glancing back over his shoulder a few times to see if the cops were still around but after not seeing anyone he finally started to pull his arm back. 

“ _ Fucking let go!”  _ he finally screeched, catching horned-dude off guard and resulted in him falling back on his butt “what the fuck?” 

Horned-dude shrugged “you said let go” 

“No! What the fuck-back there-am I in hell? Did I die, is this limbo?” Joe felt stupid for tripping over his words but this morning had been too much for him and his nose was bleeding again.

Horned-dude frowned “your nose is bleeding…” he knelt down and wiped it away gently with his sleeve “what’d you do to it?” 

Joe shoved him away and scrambled back a little “don’t touch me! What the hell kinda person had horns? Why are you bleeding?” 

“Probably because he took the horn off my head, it’s gonna be a bitch to grow back…” horned-dude sighed and moved close to Joe again, the other boy was stiff and flinched when horned-dude pressed a little firmer to wipe the rest of the blood off his face “c’mon, you shouldn’t be out here right now” 

Joe didn’t know what to do, probably because people don’t usually talk about head wounds like its a simple scratch but they also don’t just have goat horns sprouted from them either; quietly Joe followed after him through the woods again, this time he didn’t hold Joe’s arm so he felt a little better, and soon found himself standing in the backyard of the inn. He blinked and looked around him, feeling queasy again when it seemed like horned-dude had just gone up in smoke; did a ghost just show Joe the way home? Or a demon? Or-

“ _ Joe!”  _ he jumped and looked to see Pete leaning out the window “dude what the fuck, I was looking for you! Breakfast is ready, hurry the fuck inside!”

He disappeared from the window leaving Joe standing there awkwardly, he took one last look around him before making his way back to the house. 


	6. Chapter 6

The low hum of the fluorescent lights made Joe wonder if the old guy behind the counter was either deaf by it this point or if he had grown numb to it and that made him not even look up when the 3 walked in; either that or because Bennie was with them the guy figured they were chill people, it seemed the kid had a rep around town of being a good kid (which Joe found a little funny since this morning they had managed to crawl onto Pete’s back to fight him over the last piece of bacon, Joe wished he’d had a camera). Bennie went straight to a back corner and disappeared behind an empty rack, Joe and Pete glanced at each other a little bit for a loss but Bennie stuck their head out and waved them over. 

“I don't know if you guys are interested in like...the stuff over there” the gestured behind the two at the more Dollar Tree-like items, then over at the door they were standing by “but there’s cool stuff in here, at least I think it’s cool” 

Maybe Joe should’ve been a little concerned about the fact the door stuck but once in the room he didn’t really think of being murdered somehow; there were shelves with vinyls and comics to one side, 2 old tables against another wall, and a pinball machine and some old arcade games to another. Where’s the vending machine Joe almost joked but Bennie seemed to be a mind reader, nothing was surprising anymore.

“There was a vending machine here once but some assholes kept trying to break it and steal the food and drinks so Edwin got rid of them” again Bennie gestured though this time at the wall, Joe assumed Edwin was the guy behind the counter “this used to be kind of like a teen hang out but then the town got paranoid and people kinda just stopped coming here” 

“That’s a weird reason to stop coming here” Joe mused, one of the arcade games looked like it was themed for Jurassic Park, that looked kinda cool…

“Well not to put a damper on your guys’ day but assuming that you told Pete about the real reason the ditches were dug, the son suspected of murdering his father used to work here and someone started a rumor that the kid was keeping the Jersey Devil in Edwin’s game room. Needless to say when paranoia strikes it can make even the most sensible of people afraid” 

“Wouldn’t that have fucked up this place’s business?” Pete had been picking through the vinyls, Joe wondered if his neck hurt at the weird angle he had it looking over his shoulder “I mean if everyone was convinced this place was harboring a murderer wouldn’t that make sense?”

Bennie shrugged “I don’t really know to be honest. I think people kept coming to the store because it was convenient but because the game room was managed by that kid people just started avoiding it” 

“Not everyone I’m guessing, unless this place is stocked for ghosts” Joe had wandered over to the comics and picked a random one up, yep, this was a new issue too.

“Yeah, either people that moved to town that don’t know about the murder or people that didn’t give a shit and just wanted a place to chill. Guess which one I am” not really waiting for an answer, Bennie went right up to the  _ Centipede  _ arcade box and dropped in 2 quarters “if you guys wanna chill you can or if you wanna leave that’s cool too. I just wanted to play this game some time today” 

Pete didn’t seem to hear, already absorbed in a comic, so Joe wandered over to pick through vinyls; time passed by with Bennie coming a little bit out of their shell with raging at Centipede, holding a conversation with Pete about Marvel (Joe occasionally piping in with his own opinions), and buying them food from the vending machines. Eventually it turned into Pete being determined to beat the high score on the pinball machine left by some dude named Everet, Joe had compiled a series to read through while watching his friend beginning to rage when the back of his neck felt like something had brushed along it. Joe’s head snapped around to look over shoulder in time to see someone disappearing from a window on the door, something possessed him because he was getting up and walking to the door.

“Joe?” that stopped him and he looked back at Pete and Bennie “you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna go get some air” he didn’t wait for a response as he exited out into the main area and saw the someone headed out of the store “oh no you don’t”

Rain had started outside, Joe shivered and tugged his hood up as he looked around to spot the figure to no avail; a few people were walking around and cars drove by but no sign of the faded gray hoodie, bullshit. Joe recognized it, horned-dude had been wearing it in the woods, didn’t he have any other clothes? Joe rubbed his arms as he looked around him again before deciding he was going to head inside- or at least he would have if someone hadn’t practically slithered around the corner of the building. 

“Kind of cold out, isn’t it?” Joe felt surprised hearing the guy didn’t sound that old, though it was kind of hard to see his face since he had his hood pulled down creeper style “you looking for someone?”

“No, just needed some air” Joe backed up a step to the door “is there something I could help you with?” 

The guy said nothing for a few seconds before shrugging “you’re new in town aren’t you? Never seen you before, just get curious about new people”

_ Stranger danger going off, get the fuck back inside Trohman  _ but he didn’t “yeah, visiting family friends” 

“Sounds nice” the dude had taken a step closer and Joe was started to tremble a little, from the cold or from this guy he didn’t know “was that guy who walked out your friend?”

“I told you, I just wanted some air” Joe’s voice had started to become thin and weak, what the hell did this dude want?

Hooded-guy took another step towards Joe before backing up all together, whatever the guy had been thinking of doing seemed to leave and Joe watched him warily as he turned to walk down the sidewalk. What the fuck was that, was he about to get murdered? Mugged? Kidnapped maybe? Joe let out a weak noise he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in and hurried back inside.

* * *

They left the game room and went to a few small stores after that; a bookstore, a weird pharmacy mixed with a gift shop, several thrift stores with questionable items, before they all ended up at a diner. Outside the rain had turned into a downpour, Joe watched the clouds above moving while munching on a snow cone; around them the diner had a few patrons chatting amongst themselves and a radio played some kind of rock station that Joe couldn’t place, a lot had happened in the day and it was only 12:24. That thought made Joe’s skin crawl a little, he hadn’t mentioned the hooded weirdo to Pete or Bennie yet though when he ran inside Bennie had a sort of...knowing look when Pete had asked why Joe looked so scared; he bullshitted a story about a cat scaring the fuck out of him and Bennie had made a small comment that cats tended to “appear arounded corners for no reason apparent to other people”. 

Needless to say, Joe was considering keeping a knife with him now; god, ever since this whole cryptid shit or whatever was going on had started it felt like Joe had entered a new world trying to mix in with his normal life. Pete had been talking about Patrick, both updating Joe about his life and telling Bennie about him, when low-and-behold Joe jumped as someone ran by the window; all 3 looked over to the door as the person stumbled in, Joe choked a little on ice as he saw it was horned-dude. Well, horned-dude missing the horns from his head; Pete had reached over and gave Joe’s back 3 hard pats before Joe swatted his arm away with a strangled “I’m okay” and turned back around in his seat. 

The conversation returned with Pete talking about how he and Patrick were going to get married someday, Bennie just smiled and cooed over how cute it was that Pete had a nice relationship, Joe was trying to pay attention to the two of them but his ears strained as he heard the girl behind the counter and horned-dude talking. 

“...sure you don’t want a ride home? No telling when the rain will stop, wouldn’t want you to get sick” Joe tried not snorting, that sentence was laced with a flirting tone. 

“I’ll be fine, I ran through the rain so I’ve got a chance of getting sick anyway. I’m just gonna hang around to dry off then I’ll be on my way again” 

Beside Pete Bennie had scrunched their face up and scoffed, that made Pete pause and look confused “nothing, just don’t like that girl” 

“What’d she do? Spit in your food one time?” Pete joked but even Joe was a little curious 

“Well there’s the easy explanation which is she has some beef with my ex-girlfriend so she treats me like garbage too and she flirts with any dude that looks below thirty, I mean maybe she just has really low-self esteem and that’s why she acts the way she does but that doesn’t excuse her treating my ex like ass” Bennie sighed and rubbed at their face, probably to help them lower their voice since it had started to rise in volume “the other explanation is a little complicated but to simplify it it has to do with that murder I told you guys about” 

“You mean barely told us about” Pete mumbled, downing the rest of his snow cone.

Bennie shot him a withering look “murder’s not really a happy topic you know” 

Pete changed the subject before he could get murdered himself “so you're friends with your ex?” 

“You’re not off the hook” Bennie finished their snow cone and tossed it at a trash can nearby, they made a small “ha!” when it fell in “yeah, I am. She runs one of the many tourists stops you’d find anywhere that has a cryptid- and  _ no  _ I didn’t meet her because I believe in the Jersey Devil” Bennie was still glaring at Pete because he’d had a shit-eating grin starting 

“You should have a Jersey Devil wedding” Pete grabbed Bennie’s arm before they could punch him “think fast” 

“You’re a dick. Why do I like you” Bennie huffed and stood up from the booth “c’mon, maybe the store’s open today. You can meet her maybe, if not then we can meet Herman and get some free lunch” 

This seemed like a pretty good plan until after paying for their cones when they turned around and Bennie walked right into the creepy hoodie guy; Joe grabbed them by their shoulders and pulled them back to him and pushed them to Pete, now hoodie guy had the hood down and he looked like the most average black-haired guy you’d see. Apparently Bennie knew him (not surprising) because they made a small gasp seeing him and all but shoved Pete and Joe out the door to their car; Pete kept trying to ask who that guy was and Bennie kept saying “get in the fucking car I’ll explain then”, Joe felt panic spike up when he looked over his shoulder once they reached the car to see hoodie guy trying to follow them. The car skid a little on the road as they left the parking lot and Joe looked out the windows to see the guy standing there looking after them, what in the fuck was going on? 

“Directions and an explanation please” Pete sounded pissed and Joe couldn’t really blame him

Directions given and everyone settling into the car, Bennie let out a heavy sigh from the backseat “so that guy was Desmond, he’s one of the sons of that guy that was murdered. I personally think he murdered his dad” 

Oh. 

Well.

Thanks for that bombshell Bennie.

“You said that the cop you talked to said it wasn’t like anything they’d ever seen” 

“And you told Pete about the murders, or you’re just used to hearing about them” Bennie sighed and rubbed their face again “anyway, I know that’s what I said but I still think Des killed his dad and like I told you I wouldn’t have blamed him. Look I’m not gonna go into detail again but his dad was pretty abusive and the bad stuff that you hear about in domestic abuse things , if Desmond killed his dad I wouldn’t have blamed him for it but it caused his family to get a bad rep and they moved out of town not long after they buried his dad. Desmond stays in town, I don’t know where, and he like Annie’s group he thinks Amy and Shauna have something to do with the Jersey Devil” 

“The Jersey Devil has it right in the name too,  _ Devil.  _ Supposedly the Devil influences you to do bad stuff right? Well he thinks his dad was influenced by the Jersey Devil to do bad things their whole lives so he thinks if he kills the Jersey Devil then he’ll somehow be avenging his dad’s actions” 

Part of Joe wanted to question how Bennie’s theory made any sense then if the son thought a monster made his dad evil but Joe was feeling too creeped out now to care so he sank in his seat and stared out at the scenery; the radio was turned on and Joe knew music was playing but he wasn’t really registering any of it, instead of taking his own advice now he was thinking too much...well specifically thinking about horned-dude (or should he say sometimes-horned-dude? Ugh, time to regret asking).

“Hey Bennie did you know that guy that girl was talking to?” wait shit-

“Yeah why?” Bennie peeked around the seat at Joe in the mirror

Unfortunately for Joe, Pete now had a smug grin “did little Joey see someone?” 

“Eat shit, Wentz” he felt his face burn “anyway I was just wondering, I thought I saw him at Edwin’s”

“You probably did, he’s there a lot. That’s how I met him actually, his name’s Andrew but he asked me to call him Andy” Bennie was trying way too hard to sound nonchalant about it.

“I just wondered-get that shit grin off your face, Pete or I’ll punch you” Joe huffed and crossed his arms

“You can’t! I’m the driver. Hey Bennie, we’ve been taking a lot of turns, are we going the right way?” 

Bennie snorted, “of course I know the way to my ex's work, Pete. look see? There’s a sign, take the next left and we’ll be on the road to the little tourist place” 

Pete only hummed and the car went back to silence, Joe ended up dozing off and jumped when the car stopped; the rain had lessened to a light drizzle when they got out, the tourist stop was a small wooden cabin-like building and the first (and obviously on purpose thing that was supposed to be noticed) thing Joe saw was a large funky looking statue on the roof that Joe was pretty sure was supposed to be the Jersey Devil. Paint was peeling off in certain places and the tail was broken off but Joe found himself staring at the horns (shaped like ram horns) and the eyes, peeling a little with red paint. 

  
_They should be grey_ Joe thought then felt unnerved at that, everything was too much again and when Pete yelled for him to hurry it up he gladly hurried after the other 2. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone was wondering about the aforementioned murder in the beginning of the story, it actually is important to the story. Thank you for reading this story! I have a lot more fixing of later chapters to do so updates might be slow now.


	7. Chapter 7

Inside was welcomingly warm and Joe felt bad when he laughed seeing that the shelves around the room could be described as organized chaos; if it wasn’t some kind of Jersey Devil related thing then it looked like the kind of stuff you’d find in a store that tried convincing you it was witchcraft. He walked up to a little bean-bag doll of the Jersey Devil sitting on the counter and picked it up, he laughed quietly at the small red googly eyes wondering if it was being sold or not when he noticed movement in a back area. 

“Uh..” he looked around to see Pete checking out a fish tank and Bennie seemed to have disappeared “hello?” 

A guy appeared in the doorway, he reminded Joe of one of those storage unit owners that doesn’t care about his crap, and stared at them for a few seconds before it seemed to click that there were people “oh, shit, hi. Uh, how long have you guys been here?” 

“Um, not long” did this guy know that they could have walked out with stuff? Joe didn’t even see any cameras “are you Herman?”

The guy’s face crinkled up in annoyance as he walked over to stand behind the counter “do you guys know someone I know? Is this about rent, we paid this place off already-”

“Hiya Herman” Bennie walked in from a hallway, Joe’s tiny savior “they’re my friends-er-people that I know. Is Izzy at work today?” 

“Yeah, she’s in the back feeding Bertha” Herman kept giving Joe and Pete a look-over and it was starting to annoy him, did everyone in this town just not give a shit if it was obvious they were looking at people? 

“Can you stop it? Fuck, everyone in town has been looking at Pete and Joe like they’re fucking on the wanted list” Bennie snapped and Herman’s face turned red, quickly he headed back to the room he came from. 

They followed Bennie past the room Herman went to; the hall turned right and behind the glass was a small cage, inside was a girl that leaning out a window cooeing down at something; Bennie more or less ran over so Joe assumed that that was Izzy. It was a little alarming when the two walked out and Joe saw what looked like blood on Izzy’s hands, she didn’t seem to notice though.

“Hi, you guys must be Pete and Joe. I’m Isadorah” she was probably going to hold her hand out to shake but Beanie, thankfully, grabbed her arm “oh shit, right, sorry I forgot rabbit’s bleed”

“Bertha eats rabbits? What is she a snake?” Whether Pete meant that jokingly or was genuinely curious Joe couldn’t really tell but Izzy looked excited as she beckoned them to follow after her. 

Yep, Bertha was a snake, a reticulated python Izzy informed them, and she currently had a large bulge traveling down her body (while it  _ was  _ cool Joe still felt kinda sick seeing it, Pete seemed a little green himself judging from his nervous laugh). 

“So you work out here? What do you even do?” Joe drummed his fingers along the glass while watching some fish in an indoor pond, Bertha’s cage was sort of outside but he guessed because of the rain they wanted to keep her inside today.

“Sell merchandise, talk to folks about the Jersey Devil, show them the animals sometimes when the weather is good. Not much really but it’s still a job regardless” Izzy walked out of the small bathroom she’d been in, hands free of blood, and looped her arm around Bennie’s shoulders “so Bennie says you’re all out here looking for the Jersey Devil?”

Joe wasn’t sure how he felt about Bennie talking about them to other people, Pete didn’t seem to mind “that was the plan before Joe got his nose busted, now we’re kinda just hanging out”

“How’d that happen?” did Izzy realize it was weird to suddenly stare at someone’s face like it was an autopsy? “Looks like you had a pretty bad fall. Or did someone punch you?” 

“I fell” maybe elaborate Joe? “I was uh, we were out with this group Pete met and I fell in a ditch” thank you Joe. 

Izzy frowned “they need to fill up those ditches, even if a cougar did kill that Sullivan guy it wouldn’t be hard for them to just climb back out. Shit like this is going to get someone else killed next” 

“So you and Bennie have different ideas on who killed the dude?” Joe could’ve smacked Pete then

“Well I’m not saying I can’t see the guy’s son killing his dad assuming they told you their theory. But realistically I think a cougar killed him probably, knowing his behavior he probably provoked the animal and he got what he had coming to him” oookay, could you sound anymore dark there Izzy? 

“Hey why don’t we go see the statue?” Bennie’s voice was a little high and they clearly could feel the awkward atmosphere “I mean assuming you guys brought it inside”

“You know if we don’t we’ll lose our jobs” 

The 4 headed down another hall and to what looked like a store room for random crap and a cooler sat in the corner but the main attraction sat in the middle of the room and Joe actually took a step back, the face was terrifying; glass red eyes glaring at the group with a snout curled back with sharp teeth bared like it was getting ready to take a bite out of them, arms outstretched with claws that looked like they could easily rip out an eye and large wings stretching from its back as if it was about to take off or had just landed. Beside him Pete had taken his phone out and was snapping some pics, Joe wasn’t sure why he looked at Bennie but he found that they had been staring at him as well since the moment he looked at them they turned their head back to facing the statue; did Bennie know? Did they know about Joe’s dream and encounter with the horned-guy? 

“Pretty cool right? Bennie here designed it” Izzy beamed at this knowledge while Bennie just scowled.

“All I did was draw a sketch and some art dude made it, your boss was the sucker who bought it” this time Bennie didn’t even hide the fact they glanced at Joe “since it’s raining is it okay if we kick back here ‘till it passes? I don’t think Shauna and Amy will be too worried” 

“Of course! Stay as-” a door-bell sound cut Izzy off, she frowned and looked over her shoulder “who the hell? Hang on, if Herman ran off again the fucker” 

Izzy left the 3 and Pete immediately walked up and started touching the statue, Joe made a disapproving noise but Bennie didn’t seem too upset by it so he just let it go. Soda pop were in the cooler apparently since Bennie wandered over and handed Joe a Pepsi while Pete was still busy touching the statue.

“Having fun fondling?” Bennie snickered at the glare they received “my original sketches are still around here, the boss guy wanted to keep them. You wanna see?” 

Apparently that tied over Pete’s annoyance and he followed Bennie over to some boxes, Joe had grown a little bored of this room so he wandered back down the hall and planned on checking out Bertha again when he stopped hearing voices; of course it was Izzy but the other...yep, it was that Desmond guy and he didn’t sound too happy. Just like when Joe chased down horned-guy he knew he should call for Bennie and Pete, instead he headed up the hall and out to the main lobby where Izzy was standing in a stern stance and the Desmond guy was standing by the doors away from her (Herman, Joe could see, was in the room still but it sounded like he was calling the cops). 

“For the last fucking time, we’re not hiding shit! You’ve been warned countless times this week to stay out of here, you’ve been disrupting tourists and if you try stepping even more in here I’ll blast your fucking head off”  _ yikes  _ Izzy didn’t sound like one to mess with. 

Desmond, however, seemed to not care and Joe noticed he had red eyes like he’d been crying “where is she? I just wanna talk to her, she  _ knows  _ where it is and I know she does. Just let me talk to her, I just wanna take care of this already and leave town” 

“You’re a fucking psycho if you think I’m gonna tell you where Bennie is!” and  _ now  _ Joe saw the gun, did people around here have shotguns or was that just a coincindence? “Get out of here Desmond, the cops are already on their way and I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem stuffing you in Annie and her creeps cell” 

Herman had finally stepped out of his room, he still looked like he’d rather hide but spoke anyway “they’re on their way now, Desmond. I’d suggest you either run for it or you can-can come sit in the office quietly” 

Joe started to slowly creep back down the hall, now he just wanted to hide in the backroom with Pete and Bennie ‘till things blew over-what was that? He spun around to face the windows to see...well there had been something, something fuzzy maybe had just ran past his peripheral vision but now there was nothing but rain and forest; he let out a weak sigh and began back down the hall when the quiet talking turned into loud shouting. Fight or flight apparently was busted today because he turned once more and raced to the lobby to see what was going on, the 3 occupants of the lobby were gone but the yelling was coming from outside and behind him Joe could hear Bennie and Pete running his way. Joe ran to the front to see out the window Herman was holding Izzy back while Desmond was tussling with someone on the asphalt- _ oh wasn’t today Joe’s day it was fucking horned-dude _ . Swearing he threw the door open and ran out into the rain, before the door shut behind him he heard Bennie yell “what’s going on!” 

He slipped a few times as he tried running to the two fighting, why the fuck did he think this was a good idea? Sure he could hold his own in a fight but he was a fucking twig compared to the guys fighting, that didn’t really cross his mind as he jumped onto Desmond’s back and ended up bringing him down with Joe smacking his head into the asphalt. The world exploded in light and pain, Joe wasn’t sure but he wondered almost if he’d bitten his tongue or cheek since his mouth felt heavy now; he didn’t let go of Desmond though and tightened his arms around the guy’s neck as if that would do much, he did hear Desmond gagging and felt hands clawing and jerking on Joe’s jacket sleeves but he didn’t let go. Sound eventually came back as he heard sirens and people screaming, Joe was ripped away from Desmond and found it was Pete holding him (though maybe smothering him was a better word? Joe had his face smushed into Pete’s shoulder as the older boy was now petting his head like a worried mother). 

Joe turned his head to see a cop was cuffing Desmond and horned-guy was sitting on the ground holding his gut and had a hand over his nose, seeing that made worry fill his gut and Joe tried pulling away from Pete only to be dragged inside where it wasn’t raining; Herman hurried past the two and brought out two plastic chairs, Joe was carefully sat down in the one and beside him horned-dude more or less flopped in it. Pete was kneeling beside him checking over his head and face, by the doors Izzy was clinging to Bennie and Herman had gone back outside to talk to the police. 

“There’s ice packs in the back” Izzy’s voice trembled as she spoke “I need to sit down, you guys will be alright yeah?” 

“We’ll be okay” Pete waved at the two “go sit down, that was scary” 

Bennie and Izzy disappeared into the room Herman had been in and Pete stood up to grab the ice packs, when alone Joe turned his head to look at horned-dude...well

“Andy?” he mumbled, it sounded like there was cotton in his mouth 

Andy turned and looked at him, his nose had blood running down it and joe could see a bruise forming on his neck “yeah?” 

_ Uh, shit now what?  _ “I’m Joe” 

Andy smiled at him like he was dumb “I heard” 

“Oh” Joe winced and scrunched his eyes shut for a moment as pain spiked through his head “from Bennie?” 

Andy only shrugged this time, so talkative; Pete came back with two ice packs and some paper towels he found, Joe groaned when Pete applied the cold pack to his head. Andy just nodded in thanks and pressed the paper towels to his nose and laid the ice pack against his gut, Joe tried spacing off to try ignoring the pain and in the background he could hear Pete and Andy talking (why the hell did he talk to Pete and not him? Wait no he wasn’t jealous of that). Herman walked back in and looked at the 3 disapprovingly, Joe noticed his glare lingered on Andy.

“What were you doing out here?” Andy’s silence made Herman scowl “I should’ve let the cops take you too, fucking causing trouble and shit-”

“Say one more thing to him and I’ll kick your ass” Bennie snapped as they walked out of the small room “Izzy says you can go home for the day, so get out.  _ Now”  _

Herman was out the doors in a flash and Bennie sighed, walking over to the 3 and holding out a kool-aid pack to Joe, he took it but handed it to Pete for him to open it.

“What the hell happened?” Pete was pissed, did he not ask Andy that? Joe didn’t bother caring.

“Well Izzy said Desmond was looking for me and then he decided to punch Andy” Bennie had their own juice pack and sipped on it, apparently Pete must’ve given them a nasty look because they shrank and sighed weakly “okay fine, so maybe there’s some things about this town that I should bring up” 

“My friend just got his head smashed into the concrete, I’d like you to be honest with us yeah” 

Bennie sighed and nodded “okay so everything you already know that I told you, this is pretty much the only thing I don’t like talking about-”

“Desmond was the one who found his dad’s body in the forest” Andy interrupted, he sounded as annoyed as Pete about Bennie dancing around talking

“Andy!” 

“Then stop pussyfooting around it! He reported the death and at first cops thought it was him, then he started ranting about some kind of animal and he said it was the Jersey Devil so people in town thought he had gone crazy and he left” Andy turned to face Joe and Pete “he thinks Bennie’s a shape-”

“I’m gonna fuckin’ punch you!” Bennie’s face was red and even when they were crying or had yelled at Joe and Pete in the backyard he hadn’t seen them this upset “will you shut up? That’s not important”

But Pete wasn’t about to let it go, Joe could see his face in the corner of his eye scrunch up “wait-Desmond thinks you’re a shapeshifter? I thought he thought the Jersey Devil was literally the devil” 

Bennie’s face was still red and they sent Andy a seething glare “fuck you, litearlly fuck you”

  
“Why are you mad at me? Isn’t it better they know why he’s stalking you?” they didn’t respond to that but Andy didn’t rub it in “There’s a lot wrong with Desmond and I can’t give you a reason why he thinks Bennie is a shapeshifter but for some reason he does. He thinks Bennie’s a shapeshifter and convinced the actual devil to kill his dad” 

And now Joe found his voice again “this town is fucked” 

All 3 went quiet before Bennie softly piping up “I thought you’d have figured that out when you first came here” 

Part of Joe then wanted to go on a rant, scream about how some fucking creature had come into their room and how Andy apparently had fucking horns except now he didn’t; instead, Joe just let out a shuddering sigh and asked if he could be helped to the bathroom. He prickled a little when Andy stood up and said he would help him since he needed to get cleaned up too, Joe was confused why Pete didn’t offer but then he figured Pete probably wanted to grill Bennie about whatever else they might be hiding. Once down the hall though Joe almost reflexively punched when Andy grabbed him by his arm, what the hell now? 

“Why are you still here? I thought you’d have left by now” 

Joe made a face “yeah? Well just  _ what  _ are  _ you _ ?” 

Andy said nothing, face going blank and Joe wondered if his nose was about to get busted, then he sighed and shook his head; Joe hissed when Andy pressed wet paper towels to his head, apparently there was some blood after all and while wiping it Andy told him to “stop whining like a little bitch, you could get infected”.

“Where’d your horns go?” was Joe  _ really  _ having a casual conversation with this dude? Apparently yeah. 

“Shush” Andy hissed, he looked over his shoulder then closed the door “gone, they fell off. You saw it, that cop grabbed one of them” 

Joe felt queasy at the memory “what it just popped off like a sticker?” 

“No, it’s complicated okay? Just let me clean you up” he paused seeing Joe’s glare “I’ll answer two more questions if you shut up and let me make sure you don’t die from infections” 

“Why do you care?” 

Andy shrugged as he wet another paper towel “your friend seemed nice, you seem like an ok kid, and Bennie seems to trust you guys and Bennie’s a pretty okay kid”

“So because you think Bennie’s an okay person you trust me and Pete-Wait no! That doesn’t count as a question!” 

“It does, your tone was questioning” Andy sounded factual and Joe found he’d rather him sound smug instead, he sounded more of an asshole factual “fine, I won’t count it. I wouldn’t go and say trust because I don’t know either of you, but I still think you’re alright” 

“Ok….” Joe chewed on his lip in thought, great now he had to actually carefully consider his questions “were you in my room that night? With the camera, you dropped it back off? So then you saw me in the woods” 

“That’s two questions...hold fucking still, your hair’s bloody” the small trash bin had started to fill with bloody paper towels “yes that was me, night cameras aren’t cheap and I followed your car. Yes, I saw you in the woods” 

Joe whined when Andy started wiping his nose because  _ ow it still fucking hurt  _ and when Andy presssed a little too hard in one spot Joe swung out to punch him, he froze up when Andy caught his fist and squeezed it almost painfully hard; his face was blank but Joe saw warning in his grey eyes, Joe swallowed and let his arm fall to his side.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to hurt you” he went back to the sink and wet a paper towel, looking back up to see Joe was still staring confused he just smirked “don’t look so surprised.” 

Joe turned and stared at his lap, sure the punch probably wouldn’t have been much but he wasn’t used to people being able to catch them “you got lucky, you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t looking at me” way to sound tough Joe

Andy didn’t say anything, just finished up wiping Joe’s face and whatever little blood was left “Sure. Last question?”

Joe had more than one and he was still processing pretty much just...everything of today, so he felt pretty stupid when all he could say was “am I going to see you again? I know that was you at the arcade, why’d you-did you follow me or were you hiding from Desmond?” 

“S’more than one again” Andy tossed the last bloodied paper towel away and turned to look back at Joe “yes I was at the arcade, I wasn't expecting to see anyone in the back room so that’s why I left. I would’ve stuck around but you already saw how crazy Desmond was, I was in an alley way so you weren’t in any danger if he tried something. As for your first question…” he shrugged,'' If you want to keep seeing me sure. Probably sounds weird but I think you’re interesting, apart from you falling down a ditch”

* * *

Shauna and Amy weren’t back yet but a note was on the desk again;

_ Got groceries and this might be a bad idea but Shauna keeps reassuring me so you all have the Inn to yourselves for a few days. Personal business is going on, I trust this place won’t be in flames when we get back. Make sure Bennie doesn’t die either, Annie’s group has been dealt with so no need to worry about them.  _

Somehow Joe doubted that but he just put the note back on the desk and went to see what was up in the kitchen; Pete was digging through the cupboards, Bennie was sitting on the table, and Andy was sitting in a chair like a civil human being...if Joe could even call him that. Part of him still wondered why Andy had gone back to the Inn with them but then again he wasn’t sure if he wanted to question it anymore, if Andy  _ was  _ a demon he’d rather not get sent to hell. 

“That’s the whole  _ point,  _ Pete, it’s supposed to be this insane impossible killer. That’s why the Yautja have them as sport, because it’s a true challenge. Sure the first Alien versus Predator was absolute shit but at least they explained why the temple was there” did he really just walk in on Bennie and Pete arguing about alien movies? Apparently “Hey, Joe, do you think Pete could take down a Xenomorph with a chainsaw?” 

“No way, don’t those things have acid blood? You’d get fucked over Pete” Joe sat on the table and shrugged at Pete glaring “dude if you want to kill one of those things then...I don’t know, Bennie? You seem to have knowledge” 

“They have comics, that’s why” Andy swatted at Bennie’s attempt to hit him “what are you, five? Stop hitting me” 

“That is  _ not  _ the only reason I know stuff” Bennie stuck their tongue out furtherly proving their toddler behavior before looking over at Joe “I mean since we’re humans we’re fucked? You could fuck it up by throwing them into space like Ripley, or freezing them too. Guns seem to work on the little eggfuckers so do that and somehow making flamethrowers I guess? Just throw one of the fuckers in an oven”

“You sound like you put a lot of thought into it” 

They shrugged “people can space off, sometimes I do. If anything happened to Izzy I’d kill the whole hive or die doing it” 

Well that was pretty dramatic, speaking of dramatic Pete nodded from the fridge he had moved on to “nope I wouldn’t let anything happen to Patrick” 

Bennie cooed over that “that’s the dorkiest and cutest thing I’ve ever heard. You should have a xenomorph wedding” 

Pete stared at them for a few seconds before giving them the finger while laughing “okay smartass, real funny”

“I know I am. Get out of the damn fridge already, you’re wasting electricity” Bennie hopped off the table and grabbed the phone from the wall “I’m getting pizza, if you want anything speak up now” 

Pete said there was a T.V. in the library and that he found some movies on their first day at the Inn, Joe said he’d maybe join watching and ended up heading to the back porch and sitting by the screen door; this felt dramatic to him, like some dumb movie scene after a character found something they weren’t supposed to and now they were dealing with the dilemma of not confronting it or deciding to confront it and probably dying...okay so maybe the dying part was overboard but seriously? People with horns didn’t exist, the Jersey Devil didn’t fucking exist, shapeshifters  _ did not fucking exist- _

“Hey are you okay?” he looked back to see Bennie.

“Go away” he didn’t care if that was dickish, he  _ knew  _ Bennie knew that he knew about Andy and it pissed him off. 

He turned to face forward and heard Bennie sigh “I’m sorry okay? I don’t...I’m guessing this is about Andy and I’m sorry I pretended nothing was going on when I was upstairs cleaning your guys’ floor-”

“Are you what he is?” now Joe was standing up and kind of shaking, maybe he should just go to bed. 

“Am I-oh, no, I’m not. I’m human” Bennie flinched a little “well I mean...no I’m not the same as Andy. That’s not my place to explain okay? You’d have to ask him about him. I’m sorry all this shit has been happening to you and Pete, I’m sorry you got thrown into this weird world that I’m pretty sure not many people  _ should  _ know about and just...sorry in general” 

“Is he a demon?” Joe felt his face turn red at the weird look Bennie gave them “he has fucking horns, is he a demon or something?” 

“I’m pretty sure he’s not” again they sighed and shrugged “I don’t know if he’s gonna stay the night or not but he’s watching something with Pete so if you’re freaked out by him then you’re welcome to wander the house” 

Joe just nodded then had one more thought “that art stuff, did you...was he what it was based on?” 

“A wild exaggeration sure. I’m gonna wait for pizza, if there’s any freaky eyes in the backyard just assume it’s baby Jersey Devils” they didn’t wait for a response and left. 

Joe wasn’t sure how much time passed, outside it was still raining  eventually turning into white noise and he’s pretty sure when he screamed it scared some birds chilling on the roof of the back porch; he hadn’t heard Pete say his name and when he felt his hand on his shoulder Joe had been snapped out of his stupor and now stood there staring at his friend with pizza on a plate. 

“Jesus dude, seen a ghost?” Pete laughed nervously and held the plate out “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to watch a movie and you seemed pretty spaced out so I was going to just let you eat out her” 

“Oh uh..thanks…” Joe took the place and sat back down, “I’m not really in a movie mood right now” 

“I figured…” Pete picked at his sleeve before sighing “Joe do you want to go back to Chicago?” 

Where’d that come from? “What? But you wanted to look for-”

“You’ve been hurt more than us having actual fun out here. Yeah I wanted to look for the Jersey Devil but I don’t want my interests killing my friend” he sat by Joe and looked at him seriously “just say the word and we’ll head back to Chicago”

No weirdness, no possible murderers in town, no thinking a monster was in your room while you sleep; music, getting high, shitty concerts, and probably just watching T.V. while Pete and Patrick argue and sound like an old married couple. Joe  _ did  _ want that but he’s pretty sure he would have a hard time forgetting everything that had happened and despite his judgement he wanted to know what Andy was. 

God that sounded like Andy was some science experiment, Joe just sighed and bit into the pizza slice angrily “I appreciate it but really I’ve had an okay time. It’s been nice out here, the rain’s okay besides being cold as fuck”

Pete nodded slowly “okay, but really just tell me. Hey are you still mad about what I said in the car? About Andy? ‘Cause you seem kinda awkward around him”  _ oh don’t you fucking dare Peter- _ “did you two make out in the bathroom?” 

“You fucker!” Joe punched him and Pete laughed, shoving back and covering his head while Joe started slapping him “you dick, you went and ruined it!” 

“You’re being so mean! After I brought you dinner” he’d scooted away but still had a shit-eating grin “for real though did he do something?” 

_ Besides apparently being a demon or maybe the actual Jersey Devil no  _ “no, he’s cool. I’m just tired today, got beat up remember?”

Pete just nodded again and headed back to the living room, mentioning the movie offer was still open, before leaving Joe alone again. The pizza was cold, he ate it anyway, and finally decided to get up and stop staring out into the creepy ass woods-he jumped for some reason and turned around to see Andy walking over. 

“Hi” 

“Um..hi” Joe rubbed at his sleeve awkwardly “wha-”

“Leaving” Andy walked by him and started to push the door open but stopped, he looked at the hand on his arm then up at Joe “hm?” 

_ What the hell am I doing?  _ “You don’t-if you think you have to leave because you freaked me out you don’t. I mean I don’t know if you have a house or something but you can stay” welp now Joe really did feel like he was in a cheap B movie. 

Andy seemed to consider him, was it Joe’s imagination or were his eyes starting to look kinda...goat-ish? He put that thought aside when Andy shrugged and said “okay, show me a guest room” 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for still reading this anyone who does! I really do appreciate it

“How long have we been in New Jersey?” Joe tossed the ball back up and caught it before it could hit his face.

Pete looked up from the comic he’d been reading, face blank for a few seconds before registering what Joe had said “I’d say about...today would mark day six, so six days” 

What? No that couldn’t have been right...nope, it was right; how in the heck could so much happen in the span of only 6 days? Joe lay the ball beside him and rubbed at his face with a heavy sigh, the first 3 days were lots of bloody accidents and meeting crazy people but yesterday and the day before that were pretty normal. 

*

The next morning after Joe had attempted to find an actual room for Andy (only then remembering that all of the guest rooms were still under work so Pete had been chill with Joe sleeping in the same bed as him while Andy slept on Joe’s bed) he had woken up to his face smushed into the pillow in his own drool with no Pete or Andy in the room. Dragging himself downstairs he found that Pete was making breakfast while Andy and him were talking about music, Joe didn’t bitch about the slightly burnt pancakes and just listened to the two talking (it was weird, Andy seemed like he didn’t talk much so hearing him talk lengthy was interesting). 

Bennie walked in announcing that if they wanted to chill in town again then they’d be fine, apparently sometime that morning at about 2 they’d woken up to find the house phone ringing and the cops informed them that Desmond was now being held in the county jail and Annie’s group had been sent packing from the town. The rest of that day had been pretty chill and Joe learned that Andy turned out to be a huge nerd, by the time it was evening they’d gone to rent movies and had finished nearly all of them; Pete had asked a few questions, some dumb, some about Andy’s life, and the only answers he really got were about his tattoos and if he lived in town or not. Bennie had been around the house doing art things and after the credits rolled for  _ Phantasm  _ they’d walked into the library announcing that Pete needed to either return the movies that night or in the morning because they’d just gotten a call from a very pissed owner. 

That left Joe alone with Andy which as much as Joe had thought Andy was cool...he was kinda scared still, but really could anyone blame him? He still thought Andy was a demon and really he’d barely slept that night while staring at Andy on his bed...wait okay that was weird to admit to himself. Joe had gone to the kitchen to see if there was any leftover lasagna and jumped when Andy was sitting at the table.

“You’re not convincing me anymore that you’re not a demon, are you a demon?” 

Andy snorted at that “no, idiot, I’m not a demon I already told you I’m not” 

“Why didn’t I hear you” 

Andy just shrugged “you want to ask me stuff again?” 

Joe paused at that then sat down in a chair away from him “are you going to limit me again?” 

“Since you mentioned it sure” 

“Fuck you” Joe snapped then stared down at his hands before looking back up “you don’t live in town?” 

“No, if you wanna get technical I’m from Wisconsin. I’m down here seeing someone” 

Joe opened his mouth, then closed it, he wasn’t sure how many questions he was allowed to ask so he had to actually think “if you’re not human then why do you have tattoos and a labret?”  _ THAT was your best question? Really?  _

“They’ve got meaning to me. Yours do, don’t they?” Joe nodded “as for my lip piercing, it’s because I can. You get one more question”

“That’s not fair! Last time you only gave me three too, give me four this time” Joe didn’t care that he sounded like a kid, there wasn’t a lot to get ouf ot 3 questions and so far he’d asked dumb things. 

Andy smirked at him “you know I could just stop answering questions altogether” 

Joe glared and tried thinking of something actually worth asking now, nothing came to mind except “why’d you stop wearing your shades?” 

“You’re not very good at asking questions” Andy stood up and walked over, Joe tensed like he was about to run but stayed put “unless I’m between changing then I don’t need them, I’m pretty sure it’s not normal for people to have eyes like me” 

Speaking of which he sat down by Joe and leaned a little closer to him, Joe found himself staring into grey goat eyes...actually the more he looked the more they looked blue-ish grey and Joe felt his face turn red when he realized he’d been staring, he quickly looked away and picked at his jeans. 

“You okay?” 

“Mhm”  _ yep, nothing like staring into a stranger’s eyes  _ “you have goat-eyes” 

“No shit” Andy giggled and Joe turned redder when he said, “you’ve got nice eyes” 

“I-what-are you flirting with me?” 

Andy quirked a brow at that and tilted his head a little “that wasn’t on my mind, I was just saying you have nice eyes. Were you  _ hoping  _ I was flirting with you?” 

“No! Just-who the heck says you have nice eyes?”  _ Pete does  _ Joe told his brain to shut up and stop rationalizing things “I just met you yesterday, why would I hope you were flirting with me” 

“Alright alright, no need to be so defensive” Andy had sat back and gave Joe an apologetic look “I didn’t mean to upset you” 

Joe chewed on his lip to not groan because as much as he wanted to say he wasn’t being defensive he knew he was “It’s...it’s fine, Pete makes dumb jokes like that a lot. I’m just...look honestly? You freak me out really bad because people don’t just have horns and goat eyes but also you seem like a cool dude ‘cause you like the same crap me and Pete do. Plus if you were in my room that night then like-that was nightmare fuel okay? I’m sorry but it was”

Instead of lashing out or throwing something back like Joe feared Andy just nodded “I figured you were still scared of me. It’s not much but really I won’t hurt you Joe, you or Pete” 

“I’m...gonna try believing you” 

Andy ended up leaving that night, Pete and Bennie showed up just as he was heading out so Pete gave him a ride back to town; Joe again found himself sitting in the back porch for some reason (bullshit, he knew why he was back there) when Bennie joined him. They were quiet as they sat down and for a few seconds Joe almost forgot they were there until they piped up.

“If you’re freaked out by him I can ask him to stop coming around until you guys are gone, he just...he’s really nice and stuff, I was hiding from Desmond in the arcade when I met him. He’s a good person but if he’s scaring you I can ask him to go away” 

Funny how this was asked again, Joe shook his head and kept his eyes on the woods “it’s fine, he likes Star Wars and surprisingly doesn’t have shit taste in music. I don’t mind him being around” 

“Okay, cool” 

The next day ended up being the same, albeit no Andy until around lunch time; Bennie yelling about mud in the back porch brought Joe and Pete out of the library to see Andy covered in mud and several leaves, grass-pretty much looking like he’d rolled through the woods. Bennie demanded he take a shower or stand outside in the rain since they refused to clean up the muddy trail, Andy offered to clean his own mess up and disappeared; Pete was happy Andy was back and just as Joe guessed began teasing him a few times about it, both boys were chilling in the dining room when Andy came downstairs shirtless and wearing some sweatpants. After both stared at him for a few seconds Pete without missing a beat said “damn you’re hot”, Joe punched him while Andy turned a little pink seemingly surprised at the comment. No new movies to watch but Bennie had managed to find an old playstation and gamecube they’d had under the entertainment center in the library. 

_ Resident Evil (1 & 2), Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear Solid, Animal Crossing,  _ and  _ Metroid  _ for the GameCube and  _ Silent Hill, Parasite Eve  _ for the PS1; Bennie took the Gamecube to their room to play  _ Animal Crossing  _ leaving the guys to decide between  _ Silent Hill  _ or  _ Parasite Eve.  _ Neither of them had ever heard of  _ Parasite Eve  _ and while the cover art reminded Pete of some bad manga Andy ended up saying they should just play  _ Silent Hill _ , console setup Pete sat on the floor ready to either get the shit scared out of him or laugh at poor voice acting. It was a pretty chill evening, all of them talking to each other easily and sometimes Joe jabbing at Pete’s gameplay, Pete would in turn make a “your mom” joke or say Joe wouldn’t do any better. 

“Am I going towards the bad end? I think this is the bad end” Pete was somewhere in a school and was frustrated “fuck, can we play the other game now? Please?” 

“The other is that parasite one” Joe stood up from the couch and wandered over to the box the games had been in-oh? “You’ve got to be fucking with me”

“What? Is it porn? What kind of porn?” Pete crawled over and peeked into the box before snatching the case up, pausing, then laughing “they made a Jersey Devil game? Oh my god, we  _ have  _ to play this”   
  


Joe glanced over at Andy but he just looked amused, he caught Joe’s eyes though and gave him a “you think I care?” look; it ended up being either them all laughing at how bad it was or Pete raging at moments that caught him off guard. 

“So he’s basically a superhero?” Joe piped up when Pete was in a museum level for the umpteenth time

“Probably? I think- _ that fucking dinosaur! _ Yeah I think he’s supposed to be a superhero. Hey Joe, would you be the Fresno Nightstalker? Power of height” Pete spat out another string of curses as he was knocked away from the switch again 

Joe rolled his eyes “ha, sorry you’re a few inches too short dude. We’re not  _ that  _ far apart in height and no if I was a superhero I’d have the power of….I don’t know, probability, that’d be pretty handy”   
  


“Probability? Wanna explain that to the class?” Joe gave Andy the finger.

“So what’s the probability of that happening?” Pete quickly dove forward before Joe’s foot could hit his back “ha! Think fast, Trohman” 

“Fuck you, I’m telling Patrick” Joe huffed then shrugged at Andy “I don’t know, it sounds useful. Change the probability of getting a raise at work at least a little bit so it’s fair for you and everyone else, raise the probability of not getting food on your shirt or embarrassing yourself in front of someone. See? Can be useful” 

  
“Who’re you trying to impress?” Pete was lucky he was too out of reach for a kick “hey Andy do you need another ride back to town? It’s getting late and I think that rain is gonna get worse” 

“Actually the friend I’m staying with isn’t in town tonight, is it alright if I stay here again? I can sleep on the couch this time” 

“You can have my bed again” Joe felt his face turn red and Pete looking back at him over his shoulder “this couch doesn’t feel like it’d be comfortable” 

Pete only hummed and shut off the console, chiming that he was going to head up to his room and they could do whatever they wanted “just make sure you don’t crash if you do head out” 

Alone again, Joe found himself staring at Andy and Andy doing the same; his tattoos were very pretty, Joe also thought Andy was pretty good looking too...it was okay though right? That kind of was how people met, never knowing each other and then eventually getting to know each other and it wasn’t like Andy had said Joe had a nice ass or something creepy when he commented on his eyes-

“You okay?” he jumped a little and looked up at Andy’s face, Andy had a mixed look between knowing and concern “should I probably be wearing a shirt?”

“No you look fine”  _ wait fuck  _ “I mean it’s chill, you don’t have to...um I mean, your shirt’s muddy so it’s fine” 

Andy hummed and they fell back into silence before Andy turned to sit criss-cross to face Joe “so since you’re convinced I’m a demon, or maybe you’ve finally decided I’m not, but since you think I am do you want to touch my horns?” 

“What?” Joe moved back to the arm rest and stared at him in slight horror “you can just-what make them show up just like that?” 

“Well no...look it’s complicated, close your eyes if you’re squeamish because this does kinda look like body horror” Joe didn’t like the  _ this is gonna be gross  _ face Andy made so he did what he was told, a minute passed and quietly Andy said “okay, you can look” 

Joe opened his eyes and shrank a little, sure enough almost comical looking horns were sprouting from Andy’s head; they look black or maybe just dark brown, it’s clear that they’re still...growing back? Sure, Joe would go with that, it’s clear they’re growing back but they still look like Andy could take out an eye if he wanted. 

“Andy…” Joe had his arm half raised but hesitated “can I...is it okay if I touch them?” 

“Sure” he leaned forward with a half smile, “they’re not going to hurt I promise, I’m not a deer” 

They felt weird, though really Joe wasn’t sure what he expected them to feel like, and Joe poked where they were pointed to find it was more dull than sharp; Joe traced down to where they were coming from Andy’s head and it was only when he touched skin that he realized he’d 1) moved closer and 2) this was kind of intimate feeling. 

He scooted back pretty fast and left Andy leaning forward with a confused look before a look of recognition crossed his face “hey, it’s alright. I offered didn’t I? And you asked and I said it was fine if you touched them” 

“Uh-huh” except maybe Joe was starting to realize that there was a  _ slight  _ attraction he was having to Andy...though he was sure it was just physical so far, nothing else so that wasn’t really worth him worrying...right? “So um, I’m gonna go upstairs or you can because Pete will probably think I’m making out with you” 

Why the fuck did he say that? Andy looked wide-eyed surprised before laughing, Joe shoved him with a scowl “right okay. Goodnight Joe” 

“Goodnight Andy”

*

“ _ Hey lover boy!”  _ the ball coming down on his face was a rude awakening “Jeez dude what were you doing? Thinking about life’s problems?” 

Joe sat up rubbing his eye, glaring at Pete who was now standing by the door “were you saying something?” 

“Yeah, I was saying I’m gonna head out and see if maybe Edwin’s has some more games. Bennie said we can keep playing if we want so I wanted to see what I can find. You wanna come with?” 

“Not really, I’m gonna chill here...wait a sec, why’d you call me loverboy” he shot warning glare “don’t fucking say it” 

Pete held his hands up “hey, don’t get mad at me. Not my fault you kept making goo-goo eyes at Andy yesterday morning” he screeched as Joe threw his shoe at Pete’s head, Pete ducked and quickly ran down the hall “I said don’t get mad at me!” 

“Dick” Joe mumbled, just to make a petty point he grabbed the comic Pete had been reading and put it under the pillow, yeah Joe that’d totally show him. 

Joe changed into a clean shirt and shrugged on some PJ pants before heading downstairs, he caught the tail-end of Pete’s goodbye and assumed Bennie was downstairs (probably playing the GameCube, apparently  _ Parasite Eve  _ was one of their favorites and they kept replaying it). Grabbing a can of coke from the kitchen stash the 3 of them had built up Joe sat on the couch to watch Bennie play, it was the last level and Bennie didn’t really seem to be trying all that hard.

“Everything okay?” Joe asked when Bennie died for the 4th time

There was a little silence before they sighed “yeah I’m alright, just kinda...I hate being  _ that  _ person but just it feels way too easy? This stupid cryptid group kicked out of town and a guy that has been stalking me for thinking I have connections to the devil just being out of my life now. I keep feeling like something is going to happen and I’m just trying to stay positive but instead I’m feeling crappy”

Joe nodded “I mean if they’ve been harrassing you and your aunts that long and if I had someone convinced I was the Omen child or something like that, I'd be pretty suspicious if things seemed chill” 

“Yeah” Bennie paused the game and turned around to sit facing Joe “so...it’s not really my business but I did ask Andy if he told you what he was yet and he didn’t give me an answer and was being a cryptic shit so I’m just gonna ask what you think he is. Don’t say demon because right away I can tell you that’s not right” 

“okay, is he a goat-man?” Bennie snorted “what, he has fucking horns” 

Bennie’s eyes went wide for a second before they tilted their head curiously “is….has everything processed for you yet or are you still processing it? I mean a lot of shit happened to you in the first days you and Pete were here. Not every day you see someone with goat horns” 

“I don’t know if I processed it or if I’ve gone numb to it and soon I’m going to have a meltdown. Let’s just hope it’s an easy meltdown if I do” god, he really  _ was  _ having a casual conversation about goat-people wasn’t he? “How’d you find out about Andy?” 

“I told you, I was hiding from Desmond and he saw me crying in the game room at Edwin’s. He asked if I was alright and when Desmond tried dragging me out he gave him a big ‘ol shiner” Bennie shrank back from the “you know what I mean” look Joe gave them “I was out in the woods looking for Asters like I told you and Pete I do, I apparently Annie had seen me walk into the woods and like I said thought I was going to feed something. When I was digging up flowers they jumped me and started demanding I tell them where the Jersey Devil was, I kept telling them I didn’t know what they were talking about so they threw me in one of those ditches”

“They did  _ what?  _ You told the cops right?” could that group get any more detestable? 

“Of course I did, I called my aunt’s phone and told her what happened. While trying to get out of the ditch it started raining and I panicked which made me slip in and I couldn’t get out until something snatched me out and dropped me on the ground” Bennie stopped and picked at their wrist, that made Joe cringe a little “um, pretty much Andy saved me from drowning in a ditch and helped me get back to the Inn” 

“So that’s how he knew what flowers to put back in your garden” 

  
  


“Mhm, that was really nice of him too. Hey I’m hungry, I’m gonna make lunch”

Joe ended up re-exploring the Inn for the rest of the day, since Shauna and Amy weren’t around Bennie informed him that the reason most of it was closed off was because it was messy and looked like a horror movie scene; armed with a flashlight and a blanket (Bennie insisted he wear a jacket because there was no heat or electricity, while Joe did comply he was also given a blanket incase he took a nap which he highly doubted but he didn’t want to argue with the kid) Joe headed through the door to the left of the upstairs. The door creaked way too loudly as it was opened and Joe stared down the dark hallway, the only light besides his flashlight came from outside and the shadows of the rain falling definitely gave off an  _ Amityville Horror  _ vibe, was he about to get murdered? He hoped not, his mom would be pissed. The wallpaper had ugly flower prints and the few bedrooms (maybe bedrooms? They looked like it) that Joe found were barren and the floors clearly looked like they needed to be fixed, a few times Joe saw old items and sure the floors  _ looked  _ like they could hold his weight but he’d rather not test that out. 

The whole area just seemed like extra bedrooms, a few closets where nothing was in them except old paper, and eventually Joe found what he guessed was a master bedroom since it was fairly big. Joe didn’t see much shining his light around, at least until he noticed the small door against one of the walls...with a groan he set the blanket down and knelt down near the door, he was going to fucking die in this house. The little door even had a tiny handle, maybe this was actually a dumbwaiter? The more Joe debated on that theory instead of opening the door made sense; when he finally opened it though with much struggle as it screeched along the floor in protest though that theory went out the window and Joe found himself staring at several old newspaper clippings, a Journal, some candles, and a picture frame that was so coated in dust Joe wasn’t sure if he wanted to touch it incase his fingers would forever be dusty. 

It felt like he’d opened something he wasn’t supposed to, any second now he’d see something moving around in there or hear the little voice of a child and see red crayon writing on the wall; instead he jumped as the rain started to hit the window harder, shaking his head Joe carefully reached in and slowly pulled out the top newspaper clipping. It was dated 1946 and as Joe skimmed it he realized all these newspaper clippings had the same theme, all of them were about a beast in the woods that he knew was meant to be the Jersey Devil.

Oh...well damn, guess he finally admitted there was a Jersey Devil after all. Well after all the shit Joe had seen lately maybe he was going to start believing Pete after all, he went through the rest of the clippings just for curiosity’s sake and was actually pretty disturbed; they dated back pretty early and Joe wondered how these hadn’t crumpled away or had been eaten by mice, the first few were dated around the late 1700s and all talked about a mysterious beast seen in the woods and animals going missing. There was a common theme pretty much; the beast, animals going missing (sometimes even being found ripped to pieces), a woman or man being accused of being in cahoots with the devil or being the father/mother of this Jersey Devil, and the creature seemingly disappearing again until showing back up. 

The most recent one, the one Joe had picked up, was dated 1983, and he was surprised to see a very blurry photo that to be honest looked more like a bat than anything else but he knew better: 

_ A demon? The devil? Or maybe...the JERSEY DEVIL? Recently sightings of a small creature around the Pine Barrens have raised alarms, is there really a Jersey Devil and is it breeding somehow? Does that mean there’s hoards of these beasts just waiting to kill us all? Well most residents in town don’t think it’s after any of us, a majority of them think it’s just trying to live about its life like any old animal. A few locals have even demanded the press leave the creature alone, some going as far as threatening their vans and cameras unless they leave the town; as dramatic as this is this little Jersey Devil if we can call it that supposedly ran away upon seeing the photographer.  _

“Cute kid” Joe mumbled, cute as far as a blobby blurry looking photo could get. 

He set the clippings aside and picked up the journal, it looked like a patchwork of old leather and new leather and quite honestly Joe was a little afraid to open it; he did anyway and instead of finding passages at first he only found drawings, as he flipped through more pages he found the writings and most of them all seemed to be talking about life in general (what he noticed the most was how  _ sad  _ some of the passages were, talking about love and how whoever the journal owner was shouldn’t be in love with this girl they were talking about). It sounded like whoever wrote this was in some kind of a forbidden romance thing and to be truthful while Joe sometimes found those stupid this...was actually pretty sad. Outside came thunder and it spooked Joe out of the journal, being careful he put everything back into the little door and stood up to leave but stopped; Andy  _ really  _ wasn’t helping the image of him not being a hell-creature when he was standing outside in the rain near the edge of the woods looking at the Inn. 

The window groaned and screeched against Joe trying to push it up but eventually it gave with a harsh jerk that made him wonder if he just broke it; wind and rain lashed at him and quick as he could (Andy better have magical hearing or some shit, creepy horns must mean ears right?) he shouted “ _ Hey!”  _ yep, he didn’t hear him, Joe dramatically sighed and leaned out the window, he was going to look like a wet poodle probably.

“ _ Hey Andy up here!”  _ now he heard him, Joe moved back inside and pulled his jacket off shivering. 

He expected Andy in...would it be right to call it demon form? Goat form? Not-human form? Okay, he didn’t expect Andy to crawl in through the window human but he did anyway; Joe scowled and went over to help him in without him smacking down face first, once Andy was sitting on the ground Joe attempted to shut the window and almost slipped when it jerked back down. 

Andy hadn’t moved from the floor, just looking up at Joe until he sat down “what are you doing in here?”

“Bennie let me explore the Inn. I didn’t want to go to town today so I figured I’d see where to bodies were kept” that got a smile from Andy, Joe felt happy about that...oh right maybe he should address that-

“So did you see the stuff?” Andy gestured to the small door, okay so maybe address that later. 

“Yeah it was um...interesting. Did you put it there?” Andy shook his head and that confused Joe “okay...did Bennie?” 

“Doubt it since they were the one who told me about it. I think it might’ve been a relative maybe” Andy had said it so casually that for the umpteenth time Joe was wondering if he really was having these conversations “so what’d you find?” 

“Um…” he didn’t look mad, just curious, maybe even a little amused? Yeah, Joe was going to go with that “newspaper stuff, a lot about the Jersey Devil. Great quality photos by the way...uh, the journal was pretty sad. It sounded like someone loved someone and in the end it kind of just...went to shit” 

“Dude you don’t have to be afraid, I’m not gonna yell at you. It’s old shit, way back in the seventeen-hundreds” Andy stood up and went over to the door, Joe was slightly annoyed it was easier for him to open and he walked over with the overly dusted photo frame “this thing collected dust fast, Shauna and Amy probably had it out for a bit. Here” 

He wiped at the glass and handed it to Joe; an old pressed rose lay inside with a message underneath,  _ despite the thorns know I will always love you.  _

“That’s...sad” he looked up at Andy confused “is this from that journal owner?” 

“Yeah, Jane Leeds was someone he really loved. She really did have all those kids too but she wasn’t a whore like some people try to make her out to be…” Andy trailed off, there was bitterness in his eyes but it wasn’t directed at Joe. 

“Andy?” he looked back at Joe with a head tilt “are you...the Jersey Devil?” 

All he got in response was a smile and a kind of  _ took you long enough  _ look, the kind Joe was used to getting whenever Pete was about to do some kind of reckless thing and Joe was only  _ just  _ getting a hint of it before Pete did it.

“Joe?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you like me?” 

Joe felt himself blush “that’s...a very different thing than I thought you were going to ask. I mean...I wanted to talk to you about something before we started talking about this stuff and me figuring out what you are but um, I do have..what I mean is-yeah okay I think you’re hot and you seem really nice and you’re a nerd which honestly if you didn’t have  _ Star Wars  _ knowledge I’d not be interested in you at all” 

Andy giggled at that “so it’s because I’m hot you like me?” 

“And the nerd knowledge and you seem kind despite being quiet a lot...I wanted to ask you earlier if we could date” Joe was fully aware of how stupid he was sounding, literally not knowing Andy for long and asking him to date? 

Mentally berating himself distracted him from noticing Andy grabbing the blanket nearby until it was being draped over Joe’s head making him jump a little, Andy smiled at him warmly again and sat in front of him criss cross. 

“I’d like that” 


	9. Chapter 9

Joe doesn’t think he should still be tripping over plants in the Pine Barrens yet here he is again, almost falling face forward again and embarrassing himself when Andy catches him; he was starting to think maybe he should have asked Andy where they were heading for their date after all since so far his converse didn’t seem like the best shoes to be wearing on a muddy path, although in hindsight it’s not like he packed anything besides just normal I-want-to-be-lazy clothes (well he also didn’t think he’d find a hopefully permanent boyfriend but also-okay so there was a lot of stuff Joe didn’t expect to find in New Jersey). Earlier that morning while Joe and Pete were arguing over breakfast Bennie had wandered in with Andy in tow, Joe didn’t care if Pete shot him a smug look when Joe brightened up seeing his boyfriend. They’d all talked for a while before Andy had quietly asked if he could take Joe on a date that day, following that was Pete teasing and Bennie running away with Pete’s phone so the Joe wouldn’t have to be subjected to “oooh don’t have too much fun in the woods”. 

“You okay?” Joe blinked and looked at Andy for a few seconds before nodding “we’re almost there, sorry I didn’t think ahead-”

“No it’s okay, I’m just not really used to all this...nature” Joe felt dumb for that comment but it made Andy smile so that was all that mattered “I was just thinking” 

More twists down the path and the trees getting thinner before Joe stopped and stared at the open field before him, so  _ this  _ must’ve been where Andy got those flowers; the field was filled with the little purple flowers that he’d seen in Bennie’s garden, it honestly did take his breath away from how simple and beautiful it was. Beside him he heard Andy shift around and looked to him to see he was staring at the ground, immediately Joe realized he was probably worried and it felt cliche but Joe grabbed Andy’s hand to reassure him. 

“This is really...honestly I haven’t seen this many purple flowers before. It’s really beautiful” Joe felt his cheeks getting warm “is this what you wanted to show me?” 

“Uh-huh. You probably already figured it but because I’m not exactly a hundred percent human I don’t really know what to do on dates but I’ve got the jist of them...do you like it?” Andy didn’t let go of Joe’s hand, he actually started kind of tracing circles on the back of it.

Wait he asked Joe something right? Shit what was it-right! “I really do yeah, it’s a really pretty place for a date” wait shit did that come out wrong? 

“Cool, c’mon then” that confused Joe until he followed Andy around a bush and saw the cheesiest and cutest thing

“You made us a picnic?” 

Andy shrugged as he sat on the blanket “yeah, don’t worry I won’t force you to eat like me” 

“But some of your food is good” Joe flopped down and looked at the basket “this is cute, really it is” 

Andy seemed relieved at that, food was set out and they ended up just laying down on the blanket. Joe was kind of surprised how easy it was to talk to Andy, he seemed pretty chill in general and while talking Joe was pretending to not notice that he was scooting a little closer to Andy until he was pretty sure there was maybe a pinky’s length of space between them. Joe wasn't really a touchy guy but he hadn’t minded it when Andy held his hand so...would it be okay to hold his hand again? Joe tried and while Andy did pause for a second while talking he intertwined their fingers and squeezed Joe’s hand before continuing on a favorite western game of his. 

“How come you’re on a date with me?” Joe blurted out, way to go Trohman

Andy didn’t respond for a bit before making a small then  _ hmm  _ before answering “I don’t know. I like you, is that reason enough?”

“I mean I hope so” Joe sighed and rubbed at his face feeling embarrassed “I just, I mean you said you’ve never really been on dates before so I was just wondering why  _ me  _ specifically...you know what let’s forget I said that and just go back to bashing the prequels, please?” 

“You know you don’t have to feel insecure around me right?” Joe opened his mouth to protest but forgot what english was because hm, apparently laying close to Andy also meant being close to his face when he turned his head to look at Joe “look I like you, you’re a good person from what I can tell and have seen. If it helps any you’re cute and I like your butt” 

Joe blanked for a second before turning very red and shoving Andy’s shoulder “shut up, you just added the last comment to be a dick” 

“Maybe. Do you feel better now?” 

“Maybe. The butt comment is still bugging me but I’m hungry again so” Joe sat up and crawled over to the basket, his hand felt funny without Andy’s so he grabbed a sandwich wrapped up and scurried back to lay down.

* * *

“How’d you find this place anyway? Kinda feels...hidden I guess I’d say '' Joe had no idea where they’d wandered but the flower field had kept going and going so now they were walking again because Joe’d been curious.

“I just found it, didn’t have much to do before I could control looking like this” Joe looked at him confused and Andy rolled his eyes “Joe you saw that newspaper clipping”

“Wait so” Joe stopped walking and squinted at Andy as if somehow this would change his boyfriend to show however he was supposed to look “you’re like...born looking different?”

“Yes Joe, my mom birthed me wings and all” he shook his head when Joe looked startled and laughed a little “you’re dumb. Do you even know the legend about Mother Leeds? She had her baby and then it turned into the Jersey Devil. Same happens every generation, first the baby is normal and then it’ll either shift right away or it takes a bit for stuff to show up”

“Oh..” they started walking again but now Joe was back to thinking of a million questions about Andy, he didn’t know how to ask “so you were like, a normal baby?”

Andy stopped walking again and Joe felt his stomach drop a little, fuck did he just cross a line again? Nice going idiot-

“Let’s sit and talk okay?” Andy pulled him down to sit in front of him “okay so this, I know it’s weird to you and probably feels like you got thrown in  _ The Twilight Zone _ . I don’t know how to explain a lot of stuff to you because I’ve never had to before and this was probably a reason why my mom was always so worried about me being on my own but I’ll do the best I can to explain to you alright?”

“Well wait, we don’t-if you don’t want to talk about this stuff when we’re on our date we don’t have to” Joe felt guilty when he felt the stem of the flower he’d been playing with break “I don’t wanna be a dick to you I just don’t really, I mean shapeshifters sounds like something that’s just in media or whatever” 

“Dude i just said I’ll try answering whatever you ask. If I don’t like it though I won’t answer, deal?”

“Deal”

*

Okay so, a part of Joe kind of regretted asking Andy questions. 

He did learn a lot though; 

*Jane Leeds had fallen in love with a shapeshifter and that was the father of her last baby, unfortunately though the shifter had told her that it wouldn't be safe for the two of them to be together so he took the baby to the woods though she would still be its mother once it had learned to turn human.

*Andy could shift at any time he wanted but could also, like a lizard, lose his horns if he needed to (he would also have to lose the other one so that both could grow back properly

*No it hadn’t been Andy Joe had heard that night they’d found the dead deer, it had been an actual cougar but Andy had lured it away from the group so they’d be safe

*Apparently some of the Jersey Devil children could turn “feral” in terms of explanation and Andy had no idea where they went or what happened to them, just that Joe needed to be careful because they  _ would  _ attack whoever they wanted. 

After that explanation had left Joe a little scared Andy offered to take him back to the Inn, Joe probably said no a little too fast but really it wasn’t Andy that had him scared but more the prospect of a feral shapeshifter killing him; they ended up sitting under some trees and Joe was still processing things when in the distance he heard thunder. 

“That didn’t sound good” Joe stood up and flinched as the thunder sounded closer “yeah that’s very not good, shit how far are we from the Inn?” 

Andy stood up and seemed to think for a few seconds before grabbing Joe’s hand and pulling him along “c’mon, we’re too far from the Inn but we’re not too far from my house” 

“Your house?” Why did that surprise Joe, as far as he knew Andy wasn’t staying anywhere in town so really it wasn’t that surprising he had a house somewhere in the woods. 

He had no idea where they’d gone but Andy seemed to know the way pretty well, far off the trail and the trees started to get thicker, above them lightning started to flash and the thunder was starting to get on Joe’s nerves; sure enough there was a cabin in the distance and just in like because it felt like a bucket had been dumped on Joe as the sky opened up, he slipped a few times but Andy was there to pull him back up and then he was standing in a dry foyer in dripping clothes. 

“I thought it wasn’t supposed to rain today, how many times has it been raining this week?” Joe grumbled, glaring down at his jeans as if that’d make the denim dry “shit, I’m getting your floor wet”

“Don’t worry about it, be right back” Andy disappeared into a room, Joe wondered why until he came back out with a hoodie and a pair of sweats “the hoodie should fit, I don’t know about the sweatpants. You’re a little taller than me” 

“Huh?” Joe stared at him for a few seconds before it clicked why Andy brought the clothes out “oh! Duh right um, bathroom?” 

“That way” Andy gestured to the door “I’ll throw your clothes in the dryer when you’ve changed” 

“‘Kay” 

Was it weird Joe felt weird changing clothes? He mused this while trying to peel the jeans off his legs, maybe it was more because Andy was technically his boyfriend it felt weird, weren’t you supposed to wear each others clothes after knowing each other for a bit? Okay no, he was making a big deal out of nothing. The hoodie fit fine and the sweatpants came up a little bit above his ankle but otherwise the clothes were fine, when he opened the door though he didn’t expect to see Andy A) shirtless and B) with a tail and wings out; they both stared at each other for probably a minute before Joe quietly went “huh” and backed up into the bathroom again to shut the door. As soon as he did it though he felt like an idiot, that was  _ not  _ what he should’ve done, but after another minute he heard Andy muffled through the door “you can come back out” 

Andy took the wet clothes from Joe when he stepped back out, they didn’t say anything to each other and when Andy headed down some steps to where Joe assumed he had a dryer and washer Joe sat back against the bathroom door and mentally berated himself; way to go idiot. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is really short so I apologize

Footsteps coming back make Joe raise his head up from his knees, Andy has a blanket with him and when he sits beside Joe he mostly covers Joe with it; it’s a soft gesture that for some reason makes Joe blush but he doesn’t mind it, makes him feel a little better about how he reacted earlier. 

“Rain doesn’t looking like it’s going to let up, I could try calling the Inn and seeing if anyone could come out and get you” Andy didn’t sound upset, Joe wasn’t sure if that hurt more or not

Joe wasn’t really sure what he wanted to say, honestly his brain was struggling to think of whether to say yes or no to that and ended up blurting out a very weak “I’m sorry”

There was quiet then followed by a sigh, Joe felt his heart sink a little then readjust itself when Andy moved only to sit in front of him.

“You don’t have to be sorry about anything. Did it freak you out again?” Andy’s talking quiet like Joe’s a frightened animal, he feels stupid that this situation was happening 

“Kind of?” Joe wrapped the blanket a little tighter around him and picked at a seam he found “I’m sorry, I’m trying not to keep getting scared on you but seems like I’m not doing that too well”

“Dude it’s fine, any normal person would be weirded out. If you weren’t freaking out I’d think you already knew about shapeshifting stuff” 

“Pete probably wouldn’t, he’d probably think it’s cool. He’d probably try convincing you to help him fuck with people too” shit speaking of Pete he should probably call him or at least text him that he was fine “okay so this probably sounds really stupid but it was kind of like walking out and seeing someone in their underwear I guess, or just completely naked”

Andy snorted at that “I mean it’s the best comparison I’ve ever heard. I was just stretching, I didn’t care if you saw me but I didn’t really take what you’d think into account” 

“I mean assuming you still want to date me I’m sure we’ll figure stuff out eventually” Joe shrugged then yawned, rainy weather made people tired “can I sleep on the couch?” 

“Sure, c’mon” 

*

Joe’s not sure how long he was asleep, all he knows is that when he wakes up he feels a weird mixture of warm and cold and there’s the smell of food somewhere; with a muffled groan he wiggles around in the blanket cocoon he’d managed to wrap himself in while sleeping but that results in him rolling and shrieking as he hits the floor. While groaning because  _ ow  _ wood floor hurts against a solid head he heard footsteps hurrying his way and then Andy’s crouching by him, though Joe has squinted eyes he can see a sort of amused smirk on his face.

“Dude did you just fall off my couch?” 

Joe huffed and wiggled closer to bump his head against Andy’s leg “‘s’not my faul…..wha’zat smell?” 

“Dinner, don’t bitch about it being Vegan or you can starve” 

Joe just made some noise in response and wriggled out of the blanket finally, he stood up on unsteady legs but lucky for him Andy hadn’t walked away and stepped closer to steady him; Dinner was stir fry and Joe having to reassure Pete several times that he was safe and that yes Andy’s house was not a fucking shotgun shack in the woods plus double reassuring Patrick that he was safe (and also Patrick either being genuinely offended or jokingly offended about Joe getting a date and not telling him about it). He sat by the window while Andy was doing dishes (“it’s not a lot of dishes, go watch the rain”) and a few times when lightning flashed he swore he thought there was something moving around in the trees. 

Maybe it was a cougar, Andy said there had been one in the woods and plus it was nature so it was probably raccoons or something; that’s what he tried believing except the information of feral shapeshifters was starting to creep back into the front seat of his brain, Joe gave up on convincing himself nothing was outside and debated on going to the kitchen. He didn’t have to though since Andy came back with Joe’s clothes (was it bad that Joe was kind of bummed? The hoodie was comfortable), he seemed to have some kind of sixth sense...or probably just common sense because he set the clothes on the back of the couch and walked over to Joe. 

“You alright?” 

“Yeah um” Joe glanced back outside then shrugged and stood up from the chair “thinking too much” 

“Mm…” Andy flopped onto the couch and looked over at Joe, it took a few seconds before it clicked in Joe’s head and he sat down though it was a little away “I’m not gonna bite you know. You were kind of snuggling with me earlier in the flower field” 

Joe felt his cheeks heat up “well I just...I don’t know man”

Andy nodded a little, at what Joe wasn’t sure, and scooted over to him “do you...okay so back to our earlier issue, do you maybe want to see something? From me” 

“Huh?” what’d- _ Oh.  _ “Uh I-well I don’t want you to think you have to just to make me feel safe around you” wait shit was that wording bad? Ugh, thanks brain 

“I don’t. What I do want is that I want you to feel comfortable around me in general, Jersey Devil or not. It’s alright if you don’t want to right now, I’m not going to be offended” 

Well when he put it that way… “can I see your horns?” it came out weak and small, Joe wasn’t sure if that was a too big step or if Andy meant something else 

“Sure, just...shut your eyes please? It’s kind of gross to watch and unless you’re okay with stuff like  _ Society  _ then I don’t think you want to see” 

Joe frowned at that wondering if shifting hurt but he shut his eyes anyway, even going the dramatic step of covering his eyes, he heard Andy make a small  _ pfft _ noise before being told he could open his eyes again. It felt just as surreal as seeing them for the first time again, goat horns and grey eyes though now the eyes looked more (insert color) than the silverish grey Joe remembered seeing; without thinking Joe reached up and barely brushed his fingers along one of them before jerking his hand back and his face burned in embarrassment, he hadn’t even asked if it was okay was that weird like touching someone inappropriately? 

“Hey it’s okay” Andy pulled Joe’s hand away from his chest and awkwardly pressed Joe’s limp hand against one of his horns “I can’t feel it, they’re just horns you know? I don’t mind it. Just don’t pull, that always feels weird” 

“Okay” 

They weren’t that big yet still but Joe was pretty sure they could still take out someone’s eye; they were cool really, they looked like they were dark grey or black marble maybe even with the little flaws you’d seen in marble. Joe didn’t spend a long time staring at them, one because he wasn’t really sure if it was normal to touch horns a lot and two because he’d moved closer so now he was side by side Andy at an awkward angle.

*

“Does shapeshifting hurt?” Joe asked, he’d already seen  _ The Goonies  _ enough so he wasn’t missing much when he looked over at Andy “I don’t want to make you be in pain every time you shapeshift” 

“Not really no, it used to feel weird but it never hurt, kind of like when your arm or foot falls asleep. Used to fuck with my head but I got over it”

“Ugh, that sounds kind of creepy. Doesn’t that mean your spine feels weird?” 

“When only when it’s just my wings. If I’m shifting completely then my whole body ends up feeling weird, like cold shivers until I’m fully changed. If it’s just changing one part of my body then that part will have the weird tingles I mentioned, these” he tapped his horns “never gave me a headache but it would feel like someone had put an ice bag against my forehead without something to cover it” 

Joe nodded slowly, he supposed that made sense; he still had a lot of questions but there were too many and really he didn’t think Andy would want to keep getting interrogated, Joe just faced the T.V. again and scooted closer to Andy’s side. When the movie ended Joe had started to stretch out on the couch again when Andy informed him there was a spare bedroom, it was a pretty empty room but the bed looked comfortable enough that Joe didn’t mind flopping onto it. Andy gave a small laugh at how Joe curled up in a ball like a comfy cat, the boy on the bed felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment and mumbled a quiet “thanks for the room”. 

“If it gets too cold there’s some blankets in the closet in the living room, sucks to walk I know but it’s better than being cold” was it Joe’s imagination when Andy hesitated for a second? “Sleep well okay? If you wake up and I’m gone I just went to look around the woods”

“You know that’s not a very comforting ‘good night’” Joe half joked but felt a little fear “good night Andy” 

“Night Joe”

* * *

The blanket is ridiculously soft and that’s great, it’s a great incentive to close his eyes again and go back to sleep. So why doesn’t Joe do that, just shut his eyes again and go back to sleep instead of staring at the window across from him just like the first night at the Inn?

Because windows don’t have eyes, windows don’t have sickly yellow and angry eyes staring through the glass at the boy in the bed.

Joe doesn’t know if he’s dreaming or not but the terror in his chest is enough that it springs him from the bed, falling to the ground with a shriek as the blankets tangled around his legs before he’s up again and running out of the room; he knows for a fact that he isn’t dreaming anymore as he’s in the hall and smacks right into Andy. 

“Joe what-!” Andy doesn’t get much else out of his mouth as the other boy clings to him like a distressed octopus and causes the two of them to fall back and to the floor “ow! Joe lighten up your grip, you're going to bruise my rib cage!”

The other doesn’t respond for a few moments, just clinging and trying to ground himself because with his face pressed into Andy’s neck he can faintly feel a heartbeat and even though Andy threw a shirt on he feels warm and not dream-like at all. 

Eventually Joe loosens his grip but still keeps his arms and legs awkwardly tangled with Andy’s “there-something was looking in my window” his voice cracks either because of sleep or fear he doesn’t know

“What? Joe-okay you need to sit up with me” it was awkward and someone almost got kneed in the balls but eventually they were sitting up “what are you talking about? Were you dreaming?”

“No I wasn’t, there was something looking at me through the window!” Joe bit his lip and looked over his shoulder where the guest room was “I mean it, they were like a hollywood monster eyes” 

“You sure you weren’t having your own Spielberg dream?” Andy stood up and offered Joe a hand “it might have been a cougar, they peek into my house sometimes. Come on, do you want to go see?” 

“It’s still pouring out and if there’s a cougar I’d rather not get eaten by an oversized cat” Joe took the hand and hugged himself once he was standing “I don’t know, I’m too freaked out to go back to my room” 

Andy had a considering look on his face, Joe wondered if it was about whether Joe was being a whiny kid or not but found he was wrong “you can sleep in my bed if you don’t want to be alone” 

“Huh?” he heard him right, right? Joe blinked slowly before it really registered in his head “um, yeah if it’s okay...I kick in my sleep though” 

“I’ll just kick you back” Andy laughed and Joe scowling and the mumbled “fuck you” 

So maybe Joe did stumble after Andy a few times because wow the house was very dark and the clouds outside weren’t really helping, the occasional lightning made him jump at moving shadows and almost knocking into a wall or Andy, but eventually they reached his room. Joe wasn’t really sure how they were going to sleep and was also worrying if he’d actually kick Andy in his sleep but he was dragged over to the bed with a “stop overthinking” and found himself smushed against the wall. Huh, okay, so Joe was the little spoon...he wasn’t sure how to feel about this but the arm over his waist felt warm and secure; being the little spoon felt nice actually, especially when Joe found himself asleep again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't tell if this is short or if its just my anxiety

There’s the ghost of heat against Joe’s back when he wakes up, there’s no arm around him and no one breathing against his neck so that means Andy woke up...so what time is it? He rolled over and stared for a few seconds before deciding he’d rather share a room with Andy than Pete because the room was neat, there were a few band and movie posters on the wall (all good choices, some Joe was pretty sure they could get into discussions about) and a shelf of nerd paraphernalia; on a little bedside stand was a digital clock and the blocky red numbers read 8:24 AM. Huh, Joe didn’t mind waking up early but he was a little surprised he’d woken up this early, shaking that thought aside he crawled off the bed and headed down the hall to find his phone (and maybe Andy). The blankets were still on the floor so that was the first thing Joe took care of, when he found his phone under the bed there were a few texts and one missed call (that was a little worrying, especially seeing it was from Pete but maybe he just wanted to check on Joe as the storm worsened). 

From Pete: 

_ -you trohman sotrms getting worse you gonna be ok _

_ -power in the Inn went out. Kid and me are makin popcorn and gonna watch a mvie _

_ -power still hasnt come back maybe its better your at andys lol _

_ -hey howd your date go  _

_ -is it still going on? Are you getting a dose of Nydick? Your gonna be sore walking back to the inn _

Pete’s dead when Joe gets back, mysterious death from window or being found buried in a flower garden, the other missed texts were from his parents asking how his trip was and Patrick telling him about a new guitar place opening up somewhere in the city. Pocketing his phone Joe folded the blankets before heading out of the room, peeking in the kitchen turned up no Andy and the living was empty as well. Maybe wherever the laundry was? He mulled over this while grabbing his clothes from the couch and changing in the bathroom, maybe Andy went out like he said and Joe was left at the house for a little while. Sitting on the couch felt tempting, maybe texting Pete and giving him a heads-up to hide too, instead Joe found himself thinking about the eyes last night and was out in the cold morning. 

Everything was wet and Joe almost slipped walking out, lucky for him he grabbed the side of the house and managed to get some leverage to start walking again; there was the chance, Joe knew, that he was just going to see some normal large paw prints in the mud and he had only seen a cougar and no feral monster come to eat Joe. When he reached the back of the house he stared blankly at the ground, why would there be footprints? The rain probably washed them away and Joe was being ridiculous-

Somewhere to his left there’s loud movement in the forest and Joe- embarrassingly enough-screaming and racing back to the front of the house; he slips and catches himself each time until he’s slamming the front door behind him and slipping to the floor-except for the air behind turning cold and someone quickly grabbing him and hauling him back. 

“Fuck! I didn’t think you’d be awake already, I didn’t mean to scare you” it was a little awkward helping Joe stand back upright but Andy managed “what were you doing outside?” 

“Looking for you” Joe winced at the look Andy gave him “I was looking for tracks…” 

“Do me a favor and don’t lie to me in the future please” a few seconds ticked by before Andy sighed and shut the door “sorry, that was pretty hostile. I went out and found another cougar, probably a mom based on where it was living. I didn’t see anything by your window so for all I know the rain washed it away” 

  
“I figured that” 

*

Somehow the woods felt a lot bigger now, either that or Joe was just still tired from the lack of sleep last night, regardless it wasn’t too muggy out or too cold and walking back to the Inn holding a cute boy’s hand was nice; hm, maybe Joe would give Pete less shit for being mushy with Patrick...but only a  _ little  _ bit less shit. 

“You should come back with me and Pete” Joe said at one point, immediately regretting it when he felt Andy’s hand tighten a little “I-if you want I mean, Pete’s boyfriend has a job and I could pay him back for a ticket back to Jersey” 

“I don’t know if I could do that, Joe” Andy sounded apologetic and it made Joe feel even worse “I don’t, I mean you guys live in Chicago. There’s not enough places for me to hide” 

“Hide from what?” Joe stopped walking and looked at him “I don’t think there’s any cryptids in Chicago as far as I know, if there was Pete probably would’ve kept us there”

“Other things aren’t what I’m worried about” Andy sighed and scratched the back of his head “I mean sometimes I get...I get this itch and I can’t really just ignore it, I have to shift so I can get rid of that itch- and before you say we can just go to the country side it takes a long time for the itch to go away. I can’t stay inside a building either, I feel like a caged animal…”

Joe squeezed Andy’s hand gently, he didn’t want him to feel trapped if he came to see Joe “It’s...look, forget it, I’m sorry about-forget I said anything okay? Please”

Andy doesn’t say anything else but Joe could see him thinking, decide to kick himself the whole rest of the way back to the Inn or just don’t think and walk….yeah inevitably Joe began to berate himself. Was this just like...was this just a now-thing? The two of them-fuck Joe felt like some kind of protag in a novel about romance or something, this was real life so pinning over stuff or wahtever was going on in his heart didn’t matter in the long run. That being said he glanced at Andy from the corner of his eye and felt a mixture of joy and heartache at the thought that he probably wouldn’t see him ever again. All of this was turned on its head when there was a distant horror movie-esque scream, it had Joe feeling cold and Andy almost caused him to trip as he pulled Joe to run alongside him; it's a struggle but the adrenaline panic running in Joe’s blood helps because soon there is the Inn in the distance. 

To Joe’s absolute horror he hears the sound of an ambulance pulling up along with cop cars, it’s not a good idea and probably looks suspicious as fuck but he jerks his hand out of Andy’s and runs around to the front of the building despite Andy yelling for him behind; Officers were dragging someone out in cuffs and he felt bile rise up recognizing the now half blood-splattered black hair of Desmond and seeing what looks like an alarming amount on the shirt he was wearing as well. Paramedics hurried while another wheeled a gurney up to the porch, Joe ran over and by the time he reached it Bennie was being carried out. The entirety of the kid’s lower face, neck, and shirt were drenched in sticky fresh looking red, Joe couldn’t tell if they were awake or not based on their eyes but they weren't blinking adding to the sick feeling in Joe’s gut. 

“Joe!” he looked over to see Pete running up to him and almost fell down when he crashed into Joe, immediatley he looped his arms around the other when he felt how badly he was shaking “dude-fuck,  _ fuck  _ dude he was trying to  _ kill  _ the fucking kid and-He locked me in another room and I couldn’t help-” Pete sounded wrecked like he’d been screaming, Joe wouldn’t doubt that. 

“What the fuck happened?” Joe separated himself from Pete but stayed at least close enough that Pete could feel stable “what-why’s Bennie covered in blood?” 

“That fucking Desmond dude, I don’t know how he got in the house. We were just making breakfast and Bennie went upstairs to get their wallet ‘cuz we were going to go to town for a bit and the next thing I know I’m being thrown into a fucking closet and-” Pete doesn’t seem capable of words now and gestures to the officers, Joe sees a very bloody baseball bat and turns pale “I called the cops and they got me out, they found Desmond strangling the kid” 

_ Fuck  _ Joe let out a shaky breath then looked over to the side of the house, he didn’t know why he hoped Andy would be there or had gone after him but he hadn’t apparenlty; as Pete and him followed the ambulance to the hospital Joe was left to call and explain the situation to Shauna and Amy, it was heartbreaking hearing how horrified the two women were and worse when it turned out there was no way they could return to the town at the moment

  
“We'll take care of them, swear we will. You trusted us enough to stay with them we’ll take care of them when they get out of the hospital” Joe promised, hearing Amy sobbing in the background hurt like hell 

“Thank you, please take care of them” with that they hung up. 

Joe stared out the window at the passing trees, the hospital was a little ways out of town for some reason and it gave Joe too much to think about “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-I should have gone home this morning as soon-”

“Shut up” Pete snapped and it made Joe back away a little “we had no idea this would happen, why would we? We thought he was still with the police and even if one of us had some nasty gut feeling we were living our life and having a good time. You were out with your boyfriend and having a nice first date, I was watching movies and making shitty pancakes, this is in no way your fault Joe” 

That shut him up for the rest of the drive, the sinking feeling in Joe’s stomach getting worse as he kept thinking. 

* * *

The waiting room felt like a sad movie scene, only two people sitting in chairs and the receptionist casting them sympathetic looks; Joe had ended up falling asleep against Pete’s shoulder when a hand gently shaking gave him a near heart attack, it took him a few seconds before he recognized the grey eyes and less than a second to hug his shorter boyfriend and start crying quietly. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay they’re going to be okay” Andy carefully sat down with Joe, he rubbed along his back comfortingly while addressing Pete “sorry, I wanted to follow you guys but I didn’t want Desmond to try making a scene. What’s going on? Is Bennie okay?”

“We don’t now, they just told us they have to clean them up” Pete looked down the hall they’d rolled Bennie “I hope that asshole rots in a jail cell” 

“I found out how he got out” that had Joe pulling away from Andy to fix him with a glare “what? I sure as hell didn’t let him out, I found out Annie’s group paid a bail for him” 

Every part of Joe wanted to scream hearing that but Pete nodding solemly had Joe confused “I know, the officers told me. They said this time they’re not going to allow bail, Shauna and Amy are pressing charges against both him and Annie’s group since they were the ones who let him out” 

This was all a little too much for Joe so again he returned to clinging to his boyfriend and hid his face in his neck, hair tickled his face but it felt grounding in a weird way. Pete and Andy talked quietly for a bit until a doctor approached them, Joe detached himself again and felt relieved to not see a kind of pitying or sympathetic look from him. 

“Bennie will be alright, nothing broken thankfully, just a lot of blood and some shock. A minor concussion that we’ll have to have a check-up appointment for them but otherwise they’re alright. At the moment they’re asleep but if you’d like to stay you may or you may head home, we’ll keep in touch” 

To be quite honest Joe wanted to just go back to the Inn and pretend this didn’t happen, why in the hell did the day have to go to shit? And again the sinking feeling returned because Joe swore it had to do with those eyes he saw last night, was  _ fucking positive  _ it had to have been something to do with them. 

“Okay, thanks doctor” Pete stood up and the three started to leave when the doctor called them back. 

“There’s officers waiting outside that need to speak to whoever was at the house at the time, they wanted me to inform you all of that” with that the doctor sent them on their way. 

“I feel like I’m in a shitty movie” Pete mumbled as they headed outside, sure enough there was a patrol car and 2 officers “you guys okay with waiting in the car?”

“Sure” there was something Joe needed to ask Andy and Pete being around wouldn’t have worked, once in the car Joe turned and fixed Andy with a glare “what else did you find this morning? You said I can’t lie to you and you can’t lie to me either” 

“I  _ wasn’t  _ lying, I did find a cougar mother” Andy sighed and for a moment Joe felt guilty for accusing him of lying “I didn’t see Desmond in the woods, I had no way of knowing this was going to happen. Do you really think I’d let him near the Inn if I had seen him?”

Joe stared at his lap at that, no he didn’t think that. What was he asking anyway? It was likely the eyes were just a cougars eyes, there was nothing else supernatural about it- “is there a chance Desmond knows about you?” 

“I’ve thought about that before” oh...that doesn’t sound good to Joe “I don’t know if he does, there’s a chance that’s why he accused Bennie of being one. Why?” 

“Just…” should he bring up the eyes again? He really doesn’t want to piss Andy off, A) because mad boyfriend isn’t a nice option and B) he doesn’t want to keep blaming something non-supernatural.

“You think the eyes you saw last night were him?” Andy’s ahead of him apparently.

Before Joe can say anything Pete’s opening the driver seat door and plopping down with a “let’s go get something to eat”, guess that conversation would have to be put on hold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!!!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like a cryptid from the downstairs bathroom you forgot about  
> I crawl back out

They didn’t go out to town, instead going back to the inn where Andy told Pete to go take a nap because he looked awful. Pete didn’t argue but went to sleep in the library instead, upstairs probably had blood somewhere (Joe had started to head up but Andy had quite literally pulled him back down the stairs with a “no” because even he was sure Joe couldn’t handle seeing blood splatters). Joe sat at the table in the kitchen with his head in his arms watching Andy dig around for actual food, was it a good idea to continue their discussion here? Pete had no idea, hell Joe wasn’t even sure if Andy would ever want him to know but it was still nagging at Joe so...no time like the present. 

“What are the chances that Desmond is a Jersey Devil?” 

Andy stopped digging around the fridge and stood statue still for a few seconds before going back to digging “non-existent, he’s not a Jersey Devil. We can tell when we run into each other, I don’t know how but we just do. So you did think those eyes were him? If it was him by my house last night Joe then there’s a chance it was maybe contacts or you saw his eye color wrong” 

“Shouldn’t you be scared he knows where your house is?” why was he being so calm about that fact, that was bullshit! “Desmond’s fucking crazy, what if he tries to hurt you?” 

“I think I can handle myself” Andy responded dryly before shutting the fridge “you guys are going to die from junkfood” 

“Pete’s metabolism isn’t human and his piss is like all nasty bodily fluids are combined into one. You’re avoiding my concerns on purpose” 

Andy huffed a sigh, Joe was starting to annoy him apparently “I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be other. Look I will be fine okay? I appreciate the worry but he’s been trying to hunt me down longer than you’ve been here” 

“And he’ll probably try and keeping doing it while I’m gone, but it won’t matter right because me and Pete will be back in Chicago so me being worried is completely stupid” as soon as Joe said it he regretted it “forget it, you don’t need to make lunch or whatever” 

He was up and literally running out of the kitchen, Joe wasn’t really sure where he was going until he was sitting down in the old master bedroom in the closed off part of the house again. He sat down and pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and resting his face against them; his emotions were a fucking mess, he _knew_ Desmond was at the house last night or he at least had something to do with those eyes! It was the only explanation Joe could think of, so it...so of course it had to be right, all this crazy bullshit happening to him now had to be summed up with Desmond being a Jersey Devil or another Jersey Devil being in town or _something_! He groaned and leaned his head back to hit the wall, what the hell was his life now? He was thinking about Jersey Devils and coming up with theories, oh and he fucking just yelled at his boyfriend and ran off like a spoiled kid.

His boyfriend that was going to no longer be his boyfriend when he left New Jersey, his boyfriend that could just forget all about him when he was gone-oh sure just add trying not to cry to this nightmare day. Joe shut his eyes tightly letting out a shaky sigh before pulling his phone out, maybe this was a terrible idea but...he just needed to talk to someone right now who wasn’t Andy or Pete. 

It took 2 rings before the phone was picked up “ _Joe? Hey, Pete told me what happened, I was just about to call you-”_

“Patrick there’s something I have to tell you and please just listen before you decide I’m crazy” 

“ _I...what? Okay uh, that came out of nowhere...alright let’s hear it”_

So Joe did, starting with the eye incident and everything, with Desmond and the harassment, with how Bennie knew about Andy and to current time. Patrick had been silent the whole time, Joe almost thought he’d hung up but when he’d finished talking and there was a few minutes of silence all he heard was a silent “wow”.

“I know okay, I know it sounds like a...I don’t know some bullshit story or like I’ve been going insane but I swear-please believe me, Andy would flip if he knew I told someone” Joe felt greasy now, he’d just told his boyfriend’s secret and it was to someone roughly 800 miles away. 

“ _I….”_ here it comes, _I think you need to see a doctor_ “ _I believe you dude.”_

Wait what “you-really?” 

“ _Yeah I do. I mean yeah you sound fucking insane but no offense dude even you can’t come up with something that crazy sounding”_

Ignoring that slide aside, Joe started laughing with relief (he might have been crying a little, he won’t tell) “You-you have no idea how fucking scared I was you were going to hang up on me and tell Pete to leave me behind” 

“ _Speaking of, did you tell Pete?”_

Joe flinched and looked guiltily over at the door “I...no...I don’t think Andy wanted me to tell him or anyone else yet...or ever maybe” 

“ _Joe!”_

“I told you I was scared! I’m telling you man Desmond-if he’s not a shapeshifter I think...I think maybe he has a feral one locked up or something”

_God,_ finally saying it out loud and acknowledging it made Joe feel stupid as hell. 

Patrick was quiet for a bit “ _you...think this guy might have a Jersey Devil locked up in his garage?”_

“Don’t make me sound crazy please. I know those eyes aren’t cougar eyes, I don’t know if Andy is lying to me or if he genuinely thinks there isn’t a feral shapeshifter somewhere around here” Joe sighed and rubbed at his face “I feel like shit” 

“ _Well someone you know was just sent to the hospital for being beaten with a bat and you’re also realizing you might not be able to handle a long distance relationship”_

Joe scowled “Bennie will be fine and-and I talked about monsters to you, not my relationship” 

“ _I know but dude that was pretty dickish of you to run away from him. I know you’re afraid of what’s going on but Pete’s trying to talk to me to help him feel better cause obviously this is a pretty traumatizing thing. Basically what I’m trying to say is you have to tell him your crazy ass idea and if he denies it still maybe go play Nancy Drew”_

There was a knock at the door before Joe could respond making him jump “I know you’re mad at me right now but Pete ordered some pizza and he’s passed out in the library, you know him better so should I just leave him?” 

“Gotta go” Joe hung up and walked over to open the door “he’s okay, he probably just needed a nap with all the stress that happened” 

Andy hummed and chewed on his lip before pulling Joe closer and hugging him, this caught his boyfriend off guard but Joe looped his arms around Andy’s shoulders. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad. I don’t want you to think I’m not going to be sad when you leave, I will, I just don’t want you to spend however long we’re together thinking that you’re going to get a call from New Jersey that I’m dead”

Joe winced and pressed his face into Andy’s shoulder “that sounds like we’re inevitably going to break up. I’m sorry I ran away...and um…” _don’t say it, probably tell him, if he doesn’t know it won’t hurt, he’s going to hate you if you don’t tell him_ “I’m sorry I told a friend about you” 

Immediately he tensed and was then shoved into the opposing wall, his boyfriend was short but very terrifying “You did _what?”_

“I-he won’t go around telling people anything! I was fucking scared okay? I’m sorry, I’m sorry I told him but what chances are there that anyone is going to believe him even if he did tell someone!” _so_ much for apologies “You won’t listen to me when I try to talk to you about Desmond, if you wanna forget about all the trauma the dude has put you through _fine_ but just fucking listen to me please about this thing that's been bugging me because I’m terrified and I have to lie to my best friend about my boyfriend and I felt trapped so I told my only other friends because _I am fucking scared”_

Joe is pretty sure his time in New Jersey is the most he’s ever screamed at someone this much in his life, maybe the most he’s ever cried too because now he was shaking like a shack in a rainstorm and trying very hard not to sniffle as tears started dripping from his eyes. Andy wasn’t really looking at him, rather the space above his shoulder while his grip was slowly loosening, Joe didn’t expect him to forgive him and really he expected Andy to just jump out the window and fly away; he was lucky then that Andy just sighed-well something like a sigh mixed with a groan-and tilted Joe’s head down a little to press his forehead against his. 

“Then tell me what you’re trying to say because it feels like you’re hiding something from me, Joe” 

Joe nodded-or more like lightly knocked his head against Andy’s making them both wince “I think Desmond has a feral shapeshifter or something” 

“What?” Andy leaned back and frowned “like….a pet?” 

“No, more like trapped caged circus animal...murder animal” Joe winced and looked at him pleadingly “look if he isn’t one then maybe he does or maybe he’s playing with the feral and leading it around or-I haven’t thought this through alright I think that’s pretty clear” 

“You said it not me”

*

They woke Pete up when the pizza arrived, the kitchen felt morose while they all ate and Joe was pretty certain both boys would tell him his plan was stupid as hell. 

Well no one ever accounted him for brains per-say. 

“I’m gonna find where Desmond lives and look around his house” Both boys choked on their pizza, he hurried before they could say anything “look he’s  _ plotting  _ some shit, if he’s been harassing Bennie and their aunts for a bit then this is like a serious escalation. He’s scheming or something” 

“ _ scheming- _ God Joe, I’m the one who comes up with shitty ideas but you’re straight up suggesting we trespass and break in?” Pete looked at him like he’d now had a third eye

“He broke in here!” 

“You can’ justify that because of him doing that to us!” rationale Pete wasn’t a Pete Joe was used to. 

He looked over at Andy to see if he had anything to say, unfortunately for him his boyfriend had his face in his hands and Joe took that as a bad sign. 

“You can’t break in to someone’s house” he said, knowing Joe was looking at him “Desmond is fucking crazy okay? He’s out of hair now, we just need to be here for when they let Bennie out of the hospital and make sure everything is alright until the aunt’s come back” 

“See? Your boyfriend is smart!” Pete gestured to him with his half-eaten pizza slice “and I’m sure the cops or whatever went to his house to see if he was planning this attempted murder! There wouldn’t be anything for us to look for anyway, Joe” 

“Stop waving your pizza around, you’re going to make a mess” Andy pushed Pete’s arm down and finally looked at Joe, the younger boy shrank under the cold look “ _ don’t  _ go looking around there okay. I know you’re scared but we’re not breaking in, alright?” 

“...alright” 

The rest of the pizza was bagged up and put in the fridge, Pete and Andy went to the library to look for a movie to watch, a way to take their minds off the situation pretty much; while they did that though Joe was upstairs tying his converse on and looking around for his duffel bag, if they weren’t going with him he’d do it himself. It was a race against time then to get out of the house, he tried his best to sneak downstairs as quietly as possible while he could hear Pete and Andy talking in the library, the front door wasn’t a good bet but even going through the backdoor risked them hearing the screech of the door. Either way once they realized he was gone no doubt they’d go to check Desmond’s place, still that didn’t deter Joe from heading out and as quietly as possible he opened the back door and crept out to the porch. 

“Hey Joe? You alright up there?” his heart leapt into his throat as he heard Pete inside the house and booked it across the backyard. 

He wasn’t sure how far he ran; Joe kept slipping, stumbling, tripping, nearly face-planting into trees until he was fairly certain was completely lost in the woods. Still he hid in a bush to catch his breath and think...he had no idea where Desmond’s house was. 

_ Fuck.  _

Joe felt his face heat up in embarrassment and he pressed his hands to his face groaning, shit he was pretty much lost in the woods now trying to find someone’s house in the middle of nowhere more or less, nice one Trohman. He didn’t have long to dwell on that though, he tensed hearing Pete’s voice yelling his name somewhere in the woods and peeked through the leaves only to just see more nature. Pete was just the kind of person to run after Joe and get lost in the woods with him, the thing was though that he knew Andy probably was with him and he’d know these woods no problem; Pete’s voice sounded like it was a little closer now but still no sight of him, should Joe make a run for it? He didn’t doubt that that could end in him either being chased by either boy or possibly he’d fall into another trench and end up with a broken leg. 

He waited again to hear it Pete would call again, he wondered if this was what mice felt while hiding from foxes which was completely ridiculous because it was just Pete for fuck’s sake not someone going to murder him. Finally he decided it was safe to crawl out and looked around, no one was there so Joe started walking again, to where he didn’t know but maybe eventually he’d run into a home...hopefully he wouldn’t get shot out here. It was another few moments before he started kicking himself, he didn’t even bring his phone with him! Tunnel vision had really screwed him over, especially because now the trees around him started to get closer together and Joe began wondering if he was about to run into that mother cougar. 

As the phrase goes of course, speak of the devil and he shall cometh. 

His blood froze as he heard the quiet sound of growling, out of the corner of his eye he saw the sleek form of the mother creeping along in the underbrush and walking along beside her were her cubs.  _ Fuck,  _ a mother and her babies now had their eyes on Joe, shit was he near their home? He didn’t dare look around though, if he lost sight of her he didn’t doubt she’d attack him probably, stupidly though Joe began to walk again though slower this time. The mother kept growling, it got louder and louder until Joe was wondering if she was just showing her cubs how to hunt when something in the woods  _ screamed.  _ It wasn’t a normal sound, as far as Joe knew no animal in the world could make that noise but whatever it was the mother cougar quickly gathered her cubs and disappeared somewhere in the underbrush; the screaming didn’t stop though and that spurred Joe to do just what she did, he took off to his left this time and didn’t dare stop. 

By the time reality caught back up to him he stumbled and flew into the ground, sliding a bit and screeching as the ground dug into his body and his chin was scraped up by pebbles in the dirt. The screaming seemed to have stopped and Joe took a few seconds to remember what oxygen was, when his lungs finally felt like they weren’t on fire he shakily stood up and looked around. Still the same fucking surroundings, trees and bushes and-a road? Joe blinked a few times before running towards the asphalt path, he skidded a bit and stopped looking down both ways to see it was empty and it was around noon now if he knew his sun positions right (or whatever T.V. showed him). Well at least now he knew a way back to the town...maybe, regardless he started walking down towards the east again hoping maybe a car would come by and it might’ve been a local or someone that at least knew about Desmond and where his house was. 

A few cars did drive by as he walked but none of them stopped, one car in particular rolled their window down and laughed jeering at him and throwing a few cusses but the teenager just rolled his eyes and eventually the car of assholes gave up. Joe went on a sort of life journey then as he walked the road; he shouldn’t have run off without his phone, he should’ve tried finding where Desmond’s house was first before heading out, he should’ve at least taken the fucking car instead of running off like he was some kind of amateur detective. The sun was lower in the sky now, not quite setting just yet but not noon anymore, and Joe started thinking that he might need to hitch-hike when he saw a police taped mail-box up ahead; some kind of deity had to be watching out for him because that  _ had  _ to be Desmond’s mailbox. 

He jogged up to it and looked down the dirt road, it curved into the trees where more tape was and though Joe knew better he started up the path anyway. His luck paid off, up ahead there was a fixer-upper looking house, Joe grinned triumphantly only to scream bloody murder as a hand clamped around his shoulder and he was roughly turned around to see his  _ very  _ angry looking boyfriend. 

“ _ I am going to fucking kill you!”  _ Joe flinched and whimpered, jee that quiet voice could really shout “what the hell were you thinking? No don’t answer that, you  _ weren’t  _ thinking! You didn’t even know where this house was you kept running around and walking without even thinking about the fact that I told you there was a fucking mother cougar around here! Did that even occur to you that the dad could be around or that there was more?” 

Joe was shaking now, a mixture of shame and anger pooling in his gut “what are  _ you  _ even doing out here!” 

Andy’s eyes changed to resemble goat ones and his grip on Joe’s shoulder turned borderline skin ripping “ _ I CAME OUT HERE TO FUCKING MAKE YOU DIDN’T DIE YOU UNGRATEFUL IDIOT!”  _

“ _ Go fuck yourself!”  _ Joe shouted back and shoved hard, it didn't knock Andy down but it did give Joe time to pull out of his grip and start running towards the house. 

“Joe God dammit!” Andy jerked him back by his backpack almost causing them both to fall “you're not going in that fucking house! You’re coming back to the Inn because Pete is freaking the fuck out and you’re going to forget your stupid fucking theory-” 

Andy was cut off by something screaming, it almost sounded like the one in the woods but deeper and more guttural; Joe felt Andy tense and fearfully looked up at him, the other boy’s face was completely blank but it looked as if he’d been drained of color. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's short just becuase I want to save the more action stuff for the next chapter

“What was that?” Joe croaked out, he grabbed Andy’s arm whimpering “I-were you following me in the woods? ‘Cause if that was you then then this time it wasn't” 

Andy said nothing for a few seconds before he shoved Joe forward “c’mon, don’t touch _anything”_

Joe would’ve been happy that Andy now agreed to go in with him if he was sure his boyfriend wasn’t still angry; he followed behind him and as they neared the house he started to regret his decision, Andy however just grabbed his arm and opened the door dragging him in. the thing that surprised him really was that it wasn’t dirty at all...it was actually a very well-kept looking house save for the usual take-out garbage you’d expect to see, Joe was still hesitant because where the _fuck_ did that scream come from? They split up though it wasn’t that major, the house seemed to be pretty small consisting of the usual rooms a one-bedroom house would; it wasn’t until Joe found a backroom though that serial-killer vibes came sparking back. 

“Andy! Uh, come here please!” Joe called. 

He heard running footsteps heading his way before Andy stopped behind him with a “what the fuck”. 

The whole backroom looked like one of those conspiracy rooms you’d see in a movie; photos and papers hung up, taped to walls, pinned to corkboards, or strung around the floor and table. There was a lamp over a desk where a dusty stack of books was and a laptop that was dust free, Joe cautiously walked in despite Andy hissing “no!” and looked around the room a little more to see a disturbing shelf in the corner of the room covered in skull and other animal parts.

Actually, those probably weren't just any random animal parts. 

“A lot of these photos look old” Joe knelt down and picked up a grainy one, squinting he recognized the veranda of the Inn “what the fuck, how long has that inn been there?” 

“A while…” Andy was staring at the shelf looking ill “this isn’t just Desmond’s, this has to be someone else’s...this is probably his dad’s stuff” 

“His dad?” Joe frowned up at him “was his dad obsessed with the Jersey Devil myth?” 

“And then some, I only saw him a little bit before he died but he was crackers” Andy had picked up a binder and flipped through it making faces “his dad I can tell you was convinced everyone in town was a shapeshifter, I think it probably affected Desmond in the long run” 

Joe was over by the desk when he saw the photos, his throat went dry and he made a strangled croak sound “it’s us” 

“What?” Andy came over and froze “fuck-that’s you and Pete” 

It was several photos clearly taken from hidden places, different times throughout Joe and Pete’s time in town and a few where Bennie was hanging out as well; that wasn’t even the worst of it, the worst were the insane things scribbled on the back of several of the photos and to Joe’s horror the ones where the main focus were him had variations of mentions of kidnapping him or “using him as bait”. Suddenly coming here wasn’t a good idea anymore, it felt like they were being watched or someone was in the house with them and this room was like a cage, when Joe turned to speak to Andy he saw out of his peripheral that he wasn’t too off. 

Something had been in the doorway, a large hulking something that shrieked and raced away down the hall causing both boys to jump in fear; Andy yelled at Joe to stay put and before he could protest Joe found himself alone, the sound of Andy leaving through the front door jarring the younger boy and Joe ran after him. He didn’t get far though, the hall floor had scratches and the walls large gashes as well, the living room was trashed with the couch thrown over and the front door open hanging by a hinge. Joe felt cold and backed away again, maybe hide in the bedroom? Andy was nowhere to be seen and the outside world was quiet now save for the sound of the trees moving, Joe began to space off focusing too much on the sound of the moving branches to hear the snuffling and snarling coming nearby. 

Alarm bells were going off, hide back in the crazy room, go to the bathroom, go to the bedroom-somewhere to get away from whatever the hell that sound was. Instead, Joe found himself cautiously walking towards the back door, as he stepped out into the backyard he realized the sounds were coming from the garage; there was a window on the side of the building, cautiously Joe slowly inched forwards to look inside and quickly dropped to the grass with a painful thud but he rathered the stinging pain over the creature inside there seeing him. He panted as he struggled to calm his breathing, he’d glimpsed giant wings and a thrashing tail before the thing had turned around to look at him- _fuck_ what if it came out? 

It did but not towards Joe, he cried out and covered his head as the thing screamed again, through fingers Joe could see the shape of it disappearing into the sky. He picked himself up from the grass and quickly ran to the front where the door was wide open; inside was a gruesome sight, a large rusted looking cage sat inside with large red stains around the concrete floor and even some on the cage itself, there was a shattered lock that looked like something from a cartoon lay on the ground. There was the sound of flapping wings and something landed behind him, Joe took a few seconds before looking behind him to see Andy looking like shit. 

“Now do you believe me?” 

*

Andy had called Pete and given him directions, now the two sat at the mailbox while Joe’s fingers kept dancing over the bruises on the other boy with worry and occasional tsks of concern. 

“You need to leave New Jersey” 

Joe froze, hand currently hovering over a bruised clavicle “what?” 

“You need to leave, I can’t-you’re in danger” Andy wasn’t looking at him but Joe could hear pain in his voice “please don’t make this difficult” 

“ _Excuse me?_ Joe stood up quickly as if he’d been stung, was-had- _seriously?_ “So what we find out I’m right and-and now your response is to send me away?” 

“Joe” Andy warned, unfortunately for him Joe wasn’t listening 

“Desmond is in jail, the aunts are still away, and Bennie will need someone to take care of them until they get back. That thing isn’t in a cage anymore! It’s gone now, Desmond is gone now! I’m not in any danger!” 

“Joe” Andy shot him a look telling him to stop 

“Or maybe you just don’t want me here because I proved you wrong, what are you pissed I was right-”

“ _Th_ _at thing is fucking feral and I can’t risk losing you!”_ now Andy was standing too and clearly pissed “will you shut up! I’m not butthurt you’re right, I’m fucking terrified because that thing is feral and ferals will _kill_ any other shapeshifter in the area! I’m a danger to you!” 

Joe went quiet, he stared at him feeling sick and empty “you’re not a danger to me” 

Andy laughed dryly and ran a hand through his hair “that thing will _kill_ me Joe, and if not me then it’ll kill you and I can’t-I can’t live with that” 

“It’s not going to kill me” it probably would but just like before the thought of leaving Andy made him feel shitty “I’m not going anywhere, you can’t scare me away” 

Andy just looked defeated and allowed Joe to pull him into a hug, Joe leaned down a little to press his face into Andy’s neck and the other boy wrapped his arms around his waist. 

“I really like you” that felt like Joe was in elementary school but it still felt too early to say love.

Andy chuckled and squeezed Joe's waist “I really like you too...I’m scared of you getting hurt. I don’t know where that feral went” 

The two stayed like that for a little while then, Joe musing over a thought that might have been bad but Patrick had been right. 

“Andy?” 

“Mm”

“I think...I think Pete should know too” Andy tensed but only for a second “I just, I told his boyfriend so….I just feel like Pete should know too” 

He was quiet before sighing, again he squeezed Joe’s waist and mumbled “I guess so”

They sat back down again and an hour later when the sun was almost completely gone Pete showed up with some quick drive-thru food, of course he chewed Joe out for most of the ride but was relieved his friend was okay, when they got home though he joked about the atmosphere feeling tense and questioned if they found a murder room. 

“I have something to tell you and show you” was all Andy said before Joe watched him grab PEte’s arm and walk around to the other side of the house. 

Joe thought about following but instead headed inside carrying the food and drinks, it was a few more minutes before the boys came back inside and Pete’s eyes were wide and looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Andy looked nervous, he took his bag from Joe and sat at the table beside Joe until Pete finally spoke again; 

“Did you kill that psycho’s dad?” 

“Pete!” Joe shouted but Andy just put his hand on Joe’s shoulder 

“No but like I told you I’m a shapeshifter, me and Joe while at Desmond’s house found a feral one. Now that I know that Desmond or maybe even his father had a caged one I suspect the feral killed Desmond’s father” 

Pete looked a little pale as he munched on fries “oh” 

The trio ate in silence then, when the food was gone Andy offered to answer whatever Pete wanted to know but Joe said he needed to sue the restroom and locked himself in there with his head in his hands. There was a mixture of emotions; he was relieved he finally told Pete about Andy but now terrified because what if Pete felt betrayed now that Joe hid something like that? He was terrified because yes it turned out that there was a feral Jersey Devil but what if it had followed them home and was hellbent on killing Andy like he said it would? He let out a shuddering breath before heading back to the kitchen to find Andy had his horns showing and Pete was looking less afraid and more excited. 

“Did the hospital call about Bennie’s condition?” Joe felt like an asshole for asking, probably ruined the moment. 

Pete however didn’t seem to fazed “yeah, nothing broken and the shock wore off pretty fast. They should be out tomorrow actually but we’re going to have to take care of them because they’ll be doped up on meds” 

“That’s good” Joe left again and headed up to their room, he dug around for his PJs before starting to walk to the bathroom only stopping when he heard Pete call his name from downstairs “yeah?” 

“Me and Andy are going to stay up in case that thing tries to find the house, he said it’s better if you sleep down here so could you bring some of the blankets down?” 

Joe just hummed and threw his clothes at the other boy hearing him curse while he went back to the room to grab the blankets, the trio made an makeshift nest thing on the floor but only Joe layed down; the two other boys had left the room and went around the house closing the curtains and making sure both windows and doors were locked, Pete came back in to say they were going to stay in the front lobby area before leaving with a blanket he’d snatched from the couch. Joe snuggled against a pillow and stared out at the wall for a bit before he heard steps and sat up to see Andy.

“Hi” 

Joe stayed quiet as Andy sat next to him, he stayed that way for a few more seconds before speaking “are you mad at me for making you tell Pete? About everything”

“If I were mad I wouldn’t even be here Joe” Andy sighed and took his hand, squeezing it gently “I’m-it’s different because of what my mom raised me knowing...it’ll be fine, I trust you both though okay? And your friend even though I haven’t met him. I’m not tense or whatever you think I am over that I just don’t want you to get hurt” 

Joe just nodded and scooted closer to lean against Andy, he wasn’t necessarily that touchy touchy but right now it felt better to lay against him than the floor. His boyfriend chuckled and let go of his hand in favor of looping his arm around Joe’s waist, for a second Joe forgot that there was some kind of feral Jersey Devil somewhere in the world possibly going to kill them and just felt like he was hanging out with his boyfriend. Maybe that’s why he decided to ask something that was probably not the best idea for their current situation but hey, if he did end up dying because that thing got in and killed him (he hoped just him and somehow Pete and Andy could get away) at least he’d know he did kiss Andy after all. 

“Can I kiss you?” 

That took Andy aback “can-what? Where’d that come from” 

“I’unno, just...I wanna?” Joe felt his face heat up when Andy scooted away and turned Joe’s head to look at him “you are making a very big deal of me asking to kiss you” 

“You’re the one with the red face” Andy snickered at Joe scowling “is this like...do you think this is our last night together or something?” 

Joe bit his bottom lip and shrugged “I mean...yeah” 

Andy wasn’t smug anymore, now he was giving Joe a very serious look “don’t be stupid. That thing isn’t going to hurt you or Pete, if that’s the only reason you wanna kiss me-”

“I want to kiss you because I’m scared that thing might just come here and kill us and also I just really want to kiss you okay?” Joe word-vomited all of that as fast as he could and felt stupid now “god-just forget it okay? You’re right it’s a stupid-”

Joe has kissed people before; of course he has, he’s a hormonal teenage boy and even at his school there was the occasional curious guy that he’d end up making out with in a bathroom stall or maybe in the janitors closet. Those were always fast though, the kind of “I just want to get this over with in a way that gets me off” sort of making out and sometimes that’s just how it was with the girls he’d hope he’d score with, the one time Joe had had a girlfriend and they’d seemingly been good together hadn’t really felt this good either. 

Andy hadn’t shut him up by kissing him, instead he had pulled Joe around to sit in front of him and had leaned in closer silencing the younger boy because huh...Andy really was pretty huh? Also his breath smelled like...something good, like fruit or something, which effectively was causing Joe’s brain to stop functioning. Andy had reached up only to just brush his fingertips against Joe’s jaw and gave him a questioning look, he didn’t trust words so Joe had just nodded slightly and then Andy was pressing his lips to Joe’s and the younger boy sighed leaning into it. Joe reached up and tangled his fingers into Andy’s hair deepening the kiss, Andy stroked along Joe’s cheek with his thumb while he’d curled his other hand around the back of Joe’s neck. 

Andy’s the one that breaks the kiss, Joe’s flushed and kind of annoyed at Andy smirking at him but he doesn't mind it much, Andy’s face is pretty when he’s blushing. 

“Happy?”

“Huh? Oh-um, yea...I mean, you’re good at kissing” wait that was lame 

Andy just chuckled again and press a quick kiss to his lips “sleep okay? I’ll be in the other room with Pete” 

Joe didn’t argue, just layed back down and fell asleep soon after. 

  
  



	14. Chapter 14

At this point, Joe should have come to expect that sleeping wasn’t an option anymore-well at least sleeping normally. Through the rush of everything he at least learned that he had slept for 3 hours or something close to that, it was taking his brain a bit to fully wake up as he was yanked up from his blanket nest and rushed towards the door with Pete’s frantic babbling in his ear; he didn’t fully wake up until he was being ushered outside into the freezing cold that shocked him awake, he opened his mouth to tell Pete this prank wasn’t funny until everything the older boy had said came back in full view. 

The hospital had been attacked.

Bennie had been kidnapped. 

Cursing Joe stumbled a little as he ran towards the car, Pete and Andy weren’t far behind as they joined him, in the back he struggled to put his shoes on as Pete kept telling him about the situation while Andy started up the car and hauled out of the Inn’s lot; some kind of animal had jumped through the window of the hospital floor and had attacked several people, it had broken another window when leaving but when security had run to check that room they’d realized the patient in that room was now missing and came to the conclusion that thing had for some reason taken them. 

“Or Desmond used that thing as a distraction” Pete added once he’d finished, Joe had a feeling he wasn’t wrong “not long after the hospital called we got another one, all we heard was what sounded like the woods and something breathing like it was dying” 

_ Fuck  _ “like human breathing?” 

“No no, like, like big ass animal monster breathing or something” Pete glanced out his side of the car for a second before looking back at Joe “Andy says he’s got a pretty good idea where Desmond took Bennie. Look I’m scared as hell and want to keep the kid safe but we can’t just run in wherever and grab Bennie then get back out okay? You already know what this thing is and that it’s probably gonna attack us, we need to let Andy take care of it then when we have a chance run with Bennie” 

Joe had a cold feeling creeping up in his gut and looked at Andy in the mirror, his face was set in a determined and grim look, handle this thing as in it’d be Jersey Devil vs Jersey Devil? A quick image of a body lying in the grass dead and bloody made its way across his mind and Joe shook his head hard enough that it hurt his neck to kick that thought aside, this feral wouldn’t kill Andy, he  _ had  _ to believe in that. Andy turned onto a dirt path that seemed impossible to even notice making the other two boys in the car look nervously at each other; the car didn’t go far, Andy ended up parking maybe a few feet from the entrance and turned to address the two of them. 

“Alright look, I will have to fight that thing because whether it understands Desmond or is going off on primal instinct isn’t going to detur it from killing any of us. There’s an old moonshine shack directly to the right of us in a clearing, stay  _ directly  _ right, go forward and don’t go anywhere else. I bet he’s hiding Bennie there, this whole situation is shady as hell and dangerous so I need the two of you to be alert and keep an eye on the other. Got it?” 

This was feeling more and more like some kind of Metal Gear Solid level, both Joe and Pete nodded in agreement regardless; Andy left the driver's seat and disappeared into the underbrush. Pete was fishing around in the glovebox before pulling out 2 flashlights and exited the car, Joe’s hand shook as he followed after him making his light bounce around a little bit. Around them the woods were dead silent as if waiting for something, Joe’s mind started supplying him with different moving shapes even if there weren’t any and sounds that weren't there, hell there were  _ no  _ animals around or even bugs! For a moment he stopped walking and looked around; just his breathing and Pete walking, that was  _ it,  _ not even Andy-and where had Andy gone? 

“Joe” 

His head snapped back facing front, Pete had stopped and with some light from Joe’s own flashlight he could see how grim his friend’s face was. 

“Dude, I can’t leave you behind, we have to get Bennie together” he held his hand out but Joe could see how bad he was shaking “c’mon, we’re gonna be okay alright? We’re gonna get out of this alive” 

Alive “y-yeah” 

He took Pete’s hand and this time walked in step with him, that moonshine shack couldn’t show up any sooner. Above them Joe had started to notice the stars were disappearing, even the moon kept going behind some clouds, God but if tonight hit off every horror cliche-

“Stop” Pete did and Joe ran right into him, luckily he didn’t move “there it is” 

Ahead of them in a disturbingly perfect clearing stood what looked like the dictionary description of “murder shack”; the door was hanging off hinges with a huge hole in it and a window completely gone, the walls looked as if they were leaning in on itself and the roof could have caved any second. Joe swallowed dryly and flicked his flashlight off, if Bennie was in there then he had a feeling the feral wasn’t the one to put them in there. Pete turned his off as well and plunged the two of them into darkness, the moon was gone now and Joe felt his heartbeat race as he noticed a small light coming through the broken window, who was in there with Bennie? Or what was in there. 

“It’s a trap” Joe croaked and squeezed Pete’s hand “we’re walking right into a trap” 

“I know, but what are we supposed to do?” Pete took a steadying breath before turning to face Joe “Desmond might be around here or in there, either way this is gonna be dangerous. To be honest I think we should’ve called the cops but that might as well have been a death sentence to them, follow my lead but stay a little bit behind me alright?” 

“What’s your plan?” Joe crept along behind him trying to keep distance like he asked 

“I’m gonna go in, if Desmond’s in there then he’ll attack me first. I’ll try and get him down, I know you’re a bean pole but try and get Bennie out of there” 

“What? You’re gonna use yourself as bai-” Joe snapped his mouth shut as they neared the shack

Pete said nothing and stopped again, he changed his hold on the flashlight and Joe figured he was planning on using it as a weapon of some sort, Joe doubted that’d do much if Desmond was in there. Pete crouched and Joe did the same, he watched the older boy creep towards the window before slowly peering in, Joe moved a little to the left to attempt to see over Pete; inside the little light they saw was one of those gas lamps, laying next to it in what looked like a dark hospital gown was Bennie. Joe felt relief but heard Pete’s sharp intake of breath, shit what else was in there? 

“That’s way too much blood to lose” he heard the older boy whisper and to his horror, Joe realized that was why the gown was dark “fuck, I can’t tell if they’re alive or not. Okay, I’m gonna go in”

“Pete no!” Joe hissed and reached to grab the other boy but froze, what was that moving just out of reach of the lamp? “Wait, wait, what’s that?” 

“Wha- _ shit”  _ Pete grabbed Joe and pulled him to the ground, he covered the younger boy’s mouth to muffle his squeak “shit that had to have been Desmond” 

Joe felt his throat close up as he looked to the window, that sick fucker was waiting for them but what had he been doing in the shadows? Joe strained his ears to listen, as if being on the ground would allow him to avoid the doppler effect, but even so, he did hear something scraping...wait a second. 

“He has a gun” Joe whispered after removing Pete’s hand from his face, “I think it’s an old one though, it sounds like the ones you’d pack with powder” 

Pete nodded and Joe didn’t need light to know his face was grim, he wanted to shout at Pete as he started to army crawl away but he managed to bite his tongue and watched the older boy began to crawl towards the side of the shack, was he insane? Joe held his breath for the next few moments as he watched Pete pick up a large chunk of dirt or a rock, if luck was on their side this ploy would work and Desmond would be out long enough for both of them to grab Bennie and at least hide in the bushes somewhere. The chunk flew through the air and landed somewhere, Pete quickly dove to hide against the side of the house and to Joe’s horror he realized he was still near the front, he would’ve won a movie award with the way he jumped up and dove to where Pete was hiding. 

Both boys held their breath as they heard the hinges creak and someone stepped out onto the grass, the shape of Desmond hurried by and as he did Joe felt sick seeing blood smeared on his face along with a large bandage on his shoulder. They watched his shape disappear into the bushes and wasted no time, he didn’t have the gun on him so if they were lucky it was sitting somewhere inside and if push came to shove-and God, Joe hoped it wouldn’t be shoved-they could use it in defense. The floorboards looked like shit, water damage here and there and the smell was nauseating, Joe covered his face as he hurried after Pete to the room where they thought Bennie was laying in. 

“Ben?” Pete whispered as they entered, he made a choked sound and hurried to their limp form “shit-Bennie hey, come on, say something” 

Joe put his other hand over his face to keep from retching, Bennie’s hospital gown was torn a little and an obvious wound had soaked the bottom half of the gown. Pete pressed his fingers to their throat for a few seconds before glancing back at the younger boy relieved, they were alive, thank  _ fuck.  _ It was definitely a struggle as the two tried to pick Bennie up, Pete had their upper half and Joe struggled to for one not touch the wound and for two be able to get a good hold on Bennie’s legs; he was glad the cops weren’t around because if they were he was pretty sure they’d think the two boys were carrying a dead body. 

“I don’t hear him anymore, where is he?” Joe asked as they awkwardly shuffled out the front door.

“I don’t-I don’t know but don’t think about it” Pete whispered though even he glanced towards the woods “let’s just get them to the car-”

Hell opened up in the woods then, trees crashing and the screams of the damned rang out making both boys scream themselves and almost drop Bennie in a newfound rush to get to the car. As if the sky had been waiting for this moment the clouds turned on their faucets and doused all 3 of them in freezing water, Pete shouted and Joe almost slipped as the grass beneath him turned more into soupy mud than something for his shoes to grip, almost dropping Bennie in the process of trying to get a foothold. Getting through the bushes was harder, the ground was starting to turn into stick-rock-and-mud surprise causing both boys to almost slip and drop Bennie several times, it wasn’t until there was another scream in the woods that Joe fell and this time Pete grabbed Bennie’s legs holding them bridal style. 

“Fucking  _ go  _ man!” he screamed over the sudden rolling thunder

Joe did but not to the car, Pete yelled at him as he ran by the older boy back to the shack but it was too dark to see where they were really going; back in the shack Joe stopped a few feet from it realizing the lamp was gone, he cursed and turned to run back to Pete only to hear a shot of thunder and felt his shoulder explode. The scream he heard he realized came from him as he crashed to the ground, grabbing at his shoulder and curled into a ball wailing as pain spider-webbed through him. The world was slowing down and moving fast all at once, the rain sounded muffled but the heavy steps coming towards him were loud and clear, the thunder sounded like it was blanketed but labored breathing sounded as if it was right in his ears. 

A hand grabbed his hair and gripped it so tight Joe felt like his scalp was going to be ripped off, he cried in pain as he was pulled from the ground and felt the freezing barrel of a gun shoved under his jaw. Desmond’s breathing sounded like he’d been running a marathon or he was rabid, Joe wasn’t sure if it was the shock from the cold or the gun wound that had his throat closing up and keeping him from screaming as Desmond held him up by his hair above the ground, feet barely brushing the mud. He was caught, the teeth of the trap had shut and Joe had stupidly gone back even though he should’ve known it was a bad idea, all he could do now was hope that Pete had gotten Bennie to the car and they were safe.

“ _ I know you’re out there, demon!”  _ Desmond screamed, Joe winced and looked up to see a manic look in the other’s eyes “ _ I’m gonna fucking kill him if you don’t get out here!”  _

Joe squealed as he was dropped turning into a scream as Desmond pressed his boot on the boy’s shoulder, it felt like Joe was going to blackout from pain at this point. Desmond was still raving and ranting to the woods, waving his gun around and gesturing down at Joe; why was he trying to get Andy out in the open? He had to be controlling the feral somehow didn’t he? Obviously, it would try and kill Andy-or maybe, Joe realized with cold dread, Desmond thought they would team up and kill him, maybe the insane man standing on him thought this whole time his dad and him had been keeping Andy’s partner in crime or something in a cage while Andy tried finding a way to get it. 

His thoughts were interrupted as Desmond slammed his foot down making his throat finally work and allow an earth-shattering scream, the barrel of the gun was jammed into the back of his head and he felt blood start to run down his neck, please whatever God existed let Pete have gotten away safely. Desmond was starting to yell something again when a large form lunged out of the bushes and knocked the man to the ground, both forms screaming but giving Joe the adrenaline and fear he needed to shoot up from the ground and take off in the direction of the car. Behind him the screams were getting louder followed by several gunshots, that thing that was attacking Desmond wasn’t Andy and he had no desire to come face-to-face with the feral Jersey Devil. 

Stumbling through the dark Joe’s ears picked up on a distant rumbling and he sobbed in relief recognizing the car’s engine, he tripped out of the bushes and landed back on the ground in a splash, in front of him the car headlights were almost blinding. It seemed now though the universe decided to prevent him from being able to move, Joe kept slipped on his knees and hands every time he tried to get up from the ground, the screams in the woods had died now and panic was setting in as images of Desmond with a gun pointed at him or the feral Jersey Devil coming towards him filled his head; there was the sound of footsteps and Joe was about to scream until he felt warm hands grab his arm and haul him up to lean into someone, he started to sob with relief as he was shoved into the passenger side and Pete seemed to teleport into the driver’s seat. 

Through the bushes the headlights caught something glinting, Joe just started screaming without really controlling his vocal cords as Pete threw the car into reverse, the tires squealed against the mud and the younger man’s screams rose in volume as the bloody form of the Jersey Devil came into view. Pete himself screamed and slammed his hand on the dash as if that could get the car to move, maybe it did as they jerked backward and went in reverse so fast Joe tasted a little bit of vomit; Pete stopped and turned the wheel fast putting the car in reverse and hauling ass down the pathway Andy had taken them down, in the rearview mirror the Jersey Devil’s eyes became distant demonic pinpricks. 

“Oh fucking God-thank fucking God you’re alive” Pete choked out through gasps, his face was red and tear-streaked as he glanced at Joe but paled “your shoulder-”

“He shot me, he was trying to goad Andy out” Joe croaked and looked in the back seat.

Bennie had been seat belted in, Pete had used a hoodie left in the car to be placed under them and wrapped around their lap covering the bloody wound but it was clear the hoodie wasn’t enough to soak up the blood. 

“Where’s Desmond now?” Pete turned onto the paved road and his shoulders seemed to relax

“I-I’m not sure, the feral was covered in blood didn’t you see? I think he, I think it killed Desmond” Joe swallowed weakly and curled in on himself “where’s Andy though?” 

“I don’t know- _ Fuck!”  _

Both boys screamed as Pete hit the breaks, swerving into a ditch and crashing into a tree; the airbags exploded and the whole world seemed to go mute save for a monotone ringing in Joe’s ears, even the pain in his nose exploding into a cherry bomb wasn’t felt. The car horn was rining at the two as rain lashed them from the now busted windshield, he heard Pete saying his name and felt the older boy shaking him but even as he stared at Pete his eyes wouldn’t focus; Pete swore and wrangled with something around Joe-right, the seatbelt- and once it was off he pulled him out of his seat and tried to push him into the back only for the front of their car to get crunched in by a heavy weight. Pete’s screams rang through his ears as he was ripped out of the other boy’s hand and into cold clawed paws, Joe barely had time to register what was happening before glass cut his arms and clothes as he was pulled through the shattered windshield and up into the sky. 

Wings beat against the violent rain and the howling wind almost deafened the terrified boy, Joe was gasping from the cold and staring down at the trees and the sight of the car headlights becoming little yellow dots; the thing holding him suddenly stopped way above the clouds, making an unholy sound that finally drew Joe’s attention to look at it. The thing’s fur was darker than Andy’s, whether it was because of the blood or naturally he wasn't sure, it looked thinner and more gangly but what was so different was its eyes; they were the sickly yellow color Joe had seen, filled like a bottomless pit of hatred and that was directed right at the fragile human in its hands. 

And then, the thing let him go. 

You know those stories about how your life flashes through your eyes when you’re going to die? Yeah, that was happening for Joe, the rain was slowing down and as he tumbled through the air his mind seemed to have accepted before Joe had that this was it; mom and dad saying good morning, meeting Pete, Patrick and him talking in a music store, going through school, playing at some shows, and finally more recent images of the Inn, meeting the aunts and Bennie, messing around in town, and cheesy as it sounded saying goodnight to Andy. Joe blinked and realized the trees were coming closer to him, his stomach clenched as he realized the trees might impale him before the ground could break all his bones. 

He shut his eyes; maybe it was a bad idea but hey if he was going to die he’d rather not see it coming- his foot was snagged making him scream as he was lifted back into the air, oh God was the feral going to kill him a different way? Joe started to wriggle, however whoever was holding him flew back down towards the ground but this time let Joe plop into a mud hole, he spat out some dirty water that got in his mouth and stared up at the sky gasping for air. The thing that caught him landed beside him and leaned over, stretching wings out to block the rain and allow Joe to see in the dim light grey eyes looking down at him, if he could cry Joe would have but at that point he was too exhausted to even breathe. 

Andy moved away from him and disappeared somewhere else, the rain hit Joe’s face again and he closed his eyes, where had the feral gone now? Shit, what about Pete and Bennie, were they did? Had the crash killed Bennie? Joe let out a small wheeze as he tried to get some air in his lungs. It was another hellish scream that had him sitting up fast despite his muscles contracting to see in the distance the car, on top of the front of it were two figures slashing at each other and trying to grapple the other to the ground, Pete and Bennie didn't seem to be anywhere; Joe hoped to God that Andy had moved them somewhere in the forest. He struggled to stand but managed to, on trembling legs Joe tried to walk towards the fighting shapeshifters but really what was he planning on doing? He didn't know, but his legs were still walking forward and to his horror he could see now that Andy’s fur was stained with the feral’s blood. 

It all happened so fast then, Andy-it had to have been, he was smaller and stockier than the bigger one- was thrown into the woods and the feral lunged right towards Joe with its wings propelling it; the fragile boy was slammed into the ground again, pain ringing through his skull and his shoulder felt broken at this point. The feral’s mouth was wide and dripping with saliva as Joe stared in horror at the deadly teeth he knew were about to go right into him, the thing let out an ear-splitting scream in his face and opened its jaws wider to bite down on Joe’s face; was this how Desmond died? Getting his face torn up, or his head bitten off? Hell of a way to go, an awful way to go. 

Joe closed his eyes waiting for the pain only to hear a different scream leave the feral, one of pure anguish and pain. His eyes snapped open as the weight on top of him was thrown aside, to his right Joe saw something wet and red before Andy was leaning over him and curled his wings to shield Joe; grey eyes and heavy breathing were all he heard before he finally blacked out. 

* * *

“You got everything packed?” 

Joe looked up from his duffel bag where he was kneeling, having stuffed the last of his socks in. Pete was downstairs, probably saying goodbye again for the umpteenth time and eating the huge stack of pancakes Amy had made them that morning. Patrick stood there in the doorway with an exhausted smile, God this kid needed a break maybe more than Pete or Joe. After that night when Joe had fainted someone had spotted the crashed car and pulled over, they’d first spotted Joe and Andy passed out near a giant bloody and organ covered spot and the heard Pete yelling for help; a trip to the hospital and interview by the cops and they’d managed a pretty believable lie about the cougar in the woods attacking them and Desmond kidnapping Bennie. 

They’d found his body, scratched and torn up just like a cougar would have, and the old shack where his dad had apparently taken people to be used as bait for his “Jersey Devil” which cops were sure was just the mother cougar. Pete luckily only had a broken wrist and bruised up legs, Bennie’s wound was easily stitched and their shock wore off fast again, as for Joe? Broken nose, a clean bullet shot through the shoulder, and bruised ribs; if his parents ever let him see Pete again then there must have been some universal luck in the world somewhere. They’d stayed at the Inn even longer than, 7 weeks more and despite angry parents they’d managed to get the okay. 

Patrick however had booked a ticket straight to them, showing up 2 days after they’d been released from the hospital to take care of everyone. 

“Mostly yeah, how’s Pete?” Joe zipped his bag and carefully swung it onto his good shoulder 

“He’s okay, he’s downstairs saying bye again. I came up to see if you were ready, your boyfriend’s waiting to head out so we’re waiting on you-”

“Wait what?” Joe paused and looked confused, Andy was what? 

Patrick furrowed his brown “um...Andy’s heading out? With us? Was that not discussed?” 

“ _ No  _ in fact it was not” Joe hurried past Patrick-about as well as someone injured can-before standing at the bottom of the steps where Andy was chilling by the doors “hey, you, come here” 

“Good morning to you too” Andy mumbled and walked over with some effort.

The feral had done a number on him, 3 broken ribs, a sprained ankle and twisted wrist, and a few cracks in his right hand; lucky he was a shapeshifter meaning he healed faster than a human. Either way Joe had just been glad he wasn’t dead and clung to him while in the hospital, even when the doctors said Andy needed to leave he’d given them a death look and left the couple alone. 

“What does Patrick mean you're coming with” Joe frowned and fixed him with a ‘explain’ look

Andy cleared his throat and looked embarrassed “well that was supposed to be more of a surprise, but...yeah, I’ll be going back to Chicago with you” 

“You said the city’s not good for you” Joe wasn’t sure why he was trying to counter this, shouldn’t he be excited they weren't going to be separated after all? 

Andy just shrugged though smiling “well maybe after tearing a feral open like a rice bag I realized I didn’t want to be away from you” 

Joe blushed and puffed some air out, behind him Patrick pushed forward a little so he could get past Joe but the taller boy just wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and hugged him. From the kitchen Pete walked out with his backpack on his back and the Aunts following after, he practically skipped over to Patrick and pressed a kiss to his cheek before pulling Patrick along to the front porch. Bennie was sitting outside on the porch swing, it was a bit of a struggle for them to get up but when they did they gave each of the boys a tight hug (apologizing when they all said “ow”). 

“You’ll drive safely?” Amy asked as she hugged Pete goodbye 

“Of course, Patrick and me will switch if I get too tired” Pete beamed at her “thanks again, for everything and for letting us stay here longer than planned” 

“Oh think nothing of it, you two boys were wonderful to the Inn and taking care of Bennie” Shauna patted said kid’s head earning a scowl “drive safely boys, have your aunt call me Peter so I know you got back home safely” 

“Will do” again the Aunts hugged him before saying they needed to head inside before they started crying. 

Bennie uncrossed their arms and rolled their eyes before holding their arms out, clearly demanding another hug from someone; Joe decided to be the sacrifice and hugged them as tight as he could. 

“I’m gonna miss you guys” they mumbled, sniffling and clearly trying not to cry

“Oh don’t be sad dude” Pete laughed and looped one arm around Bennie’s shoulders in a side hug “I gave you my number, you can text me literally whenever. Plus you can come visit me, Pattycakes and I will get a place and you can crash there” 

“We can be your parents” Patrick joked and laughed at the glare he received, him and Bennie had gotten along fast 

“There’s cryptids all over the states, I’ll show up at some point” Bennie mumbled but let go of Pete to hug Andy “I’m gonna miss you a lot” 

“I’ll miss you too” he hugged back before letting go and gesturing to the woods “do me a favor and don’t let people steal from my house? Can you put everything in the Inn until I can get it to Illinois” 

“Totally” Bennie beamed at them all “I’ll come looking for the Enfield horror some time” 

“The what?” Joe and Patrick asked in unison

“Don’t worry about it” Pete laughed and waved to Bennie as the 4 of them headed to the car. 

Once inside and down the road Joe let his head fall on Andy’s shoulder, eyes starting to close as he watched the trees around them. They’d come to Jersey for cryptid hunting and instead ended up with a story no one would believe them, but then again Joe thought as he looked up at his boyfriend and his sleepy face Joe couldn’t help but smile and decide it didn't matter. 

Besides, he still didn’t believe in cryptids. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my GOD this bitch is DONE  
> Thank you so much to everyone that read this and followed the story, Cryptids are my favorite and so is FOB. I had a blast combining the two and I know some people feel like Trohley is just a throwaway ship or the leftover bits of Peterick but for me having them be in this fic felt very fitting. It was pretty hard writing about a place I've never been to and going off photos was the best I could do, hopefully I at least painted a clear picture for everyone where the Inn was. 
> 
> Thanks again everyone!


End file.
